Posted on 05/10/2015 10:33:33 AM PDT by Ivan Mazepa
The former Russian soldiers who spoke to Reuters, as well as human rights activists, said some soldiers were fearful of being sent to Ukraine, were pressured into going, or disgruntled at the way they were treated after fighting there.
The former tank soldier from Moscow said he would not have gone to Ukraine voluntarily. "No, what for? That's not our war. If our troops were officially there it would be a different story."
He said he had been sent to fight in Ukraine last summer and returned to Russia in September when the first peace talks took place. His crew operated a modernized Russian T-72B3 tank, he said.
"(Back in Russia) we were lined up and told that everyone would get a daily allowance, extras for fighting and medals," he said. But he said that they did not get the extras they expected. "We decided to quit. There were 14 of us." ...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
bump
Then there is this.
http://www.russianews.net/index.php/sid/232106389
“A senior Russian lawmaker says up to 400,000 people will be released, have suspended sentences voided, or have charges dropped under an amnesty timed to coincide with Victory Day celebrations next month marking the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s World War II defeat.”
I am sure there will be a surge of Russian mercenaries after Russian authorities have done picking who will be given amnesty and who will stay in prison.
Rest assured, Nadiya Savchenko will not be among those released.
The infamous Kontranicik
What does Kontranicik mean?
What Ukraine has is a law saying: “In a combat situation the commander may use weapons or give orders to subordinates on their application, if no other way to stop the offense exists, without causing the death of the other party.”
What you are comparing it to is Russian officers unofficially pressuring their subordinates to apply for a vacation and spend their vacation as illegal fighters in a war against Ukraine without Russia admitting them to be there.
Wikipedia tells me that US military also has death penalty for desertion.
When I first saw “shooting deserters” in the headline, I thought this was just another cheap sensationalizing headline meant to undermine Ukrainian war effort, to show how the country “deals” with those who have political objections to the war. Russians making up stories that Ukrainians will be catching soldiers who left the army and executing them - seriously, that’s what I first thought.
Thankfully, the article did have additional details and quote of the passed law, which make it clear that this would be applied to those under combat conditions.
Nemtsov’s report came out today, at least 220 Russian Soldiers killed. I was looking for the story here.
Of course, it will be very surprising if the Putin apologists say it is not so.
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