As Russian Conscripts Brawl Drunk, Others Abandon Ukraine Post, Hide In Forest For 2 Weeks

You conscript placeholders, you get placeholder performance. JL 

Isabel van Brugen reports in Newsweek:

A group of untrained Russian troops, drafted after mobilization in September, fled from the front line in Ukraine and have been hiding in a forest for two weeks. They were deployed to Ukraine's Luhansk region without ammunition or food. The men were promised three months of training, but instead, were immediately given uniforms and sent. They were called "minced meat" in their military unit. (Meanwhile) a drunken mass brawl broke out among Russian troops at a training center in Yurga, Siberia. The incident comes as reports emerge of low morale and drunkeness among newly moblized recruits. Regular soldiers are indignant at the "endemic drunkenness" among mobilized troops.

A group of untrained Russian troops, who were drafted after Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in September, fled from the front line in Ukraine and have been hiding in a forest for two weeks, according to media reports.

The mother of one of the mobilized soldiers, Elena Solodovnikova, told Siberia.Realii that her son and four other men from the Pervomaisky district of the Tomsk region are being accused of desertion, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

Relatives of the five mobilized men say they did not undergo the required military training, and that they were deployed to Ukraine's Luhansk region without ammunition or food.The men were promised three months of training in a military unit in Omsk, but instead, were immediately taken to Yekaterinburg, given uniforms and sent to the border area in the Rostov region on September 29.

She said they were called "meat" and "minced meat" in their military unit and that the group retreated from the front line after coming under mortar fire and are now hiding in a forest.

 

"There was no equipment. There were machine guns, but what are they going to do with machine guns against tanks?" Solodovnikova said.

"Now they are on their own. They made some kind of awning out of tents. During the day they burn fires to keep warm [and] extinguish them at night," the mother said, adding that the last time she heard from the group was October 17.

Solodovnikova said if the men were return to their unit they could be court-martialed.

The mother said that she and relatives of the other four men have appealed for help to Tatyana Solomatina, the State Duma deputy for the Tomsk region, asking if the mobilized men can undergo training.Solomatina reportedly responded by telling the family members that "military officers refuse to work with deserters."

In October, Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported that Adam Kalinin, an IT specialist from southern Russia, has been hiding in woods since Putin announced a partial mobilization on September 21.

The British Ministry of Defence assessed on Friday that the Russian military is probably threatening to shoot deserters.

Russian forces have likely started deploying "barrier troops" or "blocking units" to deal with retreating soldiers who are unwilling to fight "due to low morale."

"These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces," the British defense ministry said.

The assessment added: "Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorising shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given." British intelligence states that the tactic of shooting deserters "likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces."

A drunken mass brawl broke out among Russian troops at a training center in Yurga, Siberia a video circulating on social media appears to show.

A large group of men drafted as part of President Vladimir Putin's recent mobilization decree, were filmed at the base in the Kemerovo region.

Lyubov Eduardovna Sobol, a Russian opposition politician, lawyer and member of the Russian Opposition Coordination Council, shared the clip on her Telegram account at the end of October, saying that regular soldiers of the 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade at the base were indignant at the "endemic drunkenness" among the mobilized troops.

They "dragged the drunks" and "beat them," wrote Sobol, who produces opposition figure Alexei Navalny's YouTube channel "Navalny Live."

The video shows military officers dragging unconscious soldiers away from the scene of the brawl.

He made the announcement in a statement on his Telegram channel after visiting the 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

After seemingly trying to downplay the incident by saying that in isolated cases men had left the training center to buy alcohol he said there would be no repetition.

"My decision is a complete ban on leaving the territory of the unit," the governor said.

"Discipline has been strengthened in the training center: it is absolutely forbidden to leave it, with certain exceptions," he wrote.

Tsivilev said a maximum of one day's leave would only be possible if the unit commander permitted it in the event of family visits

The governor also commented on the brawl at the training center.

"I met with those who were involved…They gave [their word] to all the officers and veterans who are here that there will be no repetition and they will not violate military discipline," he said.

The incident comes as reports emerge of low morale and drunkeness among newly moblized recruits.

On Friday, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, announced that mobilized men are now prohibited from leaving the training center because of the mass brawl.

He made the announcement in a statement on his Telegram channel after visiting the 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

After seemingly trying to downplay the incident by saying that in isolated cases men had left the training center to buy alcohol he said there would be no repetition.

"My decision is a complete ban on leaving the territory of the unit," the governor said.

"Discipline has been strengthened in the training center: it is absolutely forbidden to leave it, with certain exceptions," he wrote.

Tsivilev said a maximum of one day's leave would only be possible if the unit commander permitted it in the event of family visits.

The governor also commented on the brawl at the training center.

"I met with those who were involved…They gave [their word] to all the officers and veterans who are here that there will be no repetition and they will not violate military discipline," he said.

The incident comes as reports emerge of low morale and drunkeness among newly moblized recruits.

Since Putin's September 21 mobilization decree, chaotic scenes have been shared on social media.

One video shows a drunken man staggering on the tarmac of an air base before he boards what is believed to be a mobilization flight.

"A group of not-necessarily-sober Russian conscripts on the territory of the Dolinsk-Sokol air base located in Sakhalin Oblast, Russian Far East," tweeted the account of Status-6, which covers armed conflicts.

Francis Scarr, from the BBC's Russian state television monitoring service, also shared the video, adding the message, "absolute scenes at an airfield in Russia's Far East where one man mobilized to fight in Ukraine was so drunk that he reportedly fell asleep in the long grass next to the runway."

Russian defense officials said Putin's mobilization order would affect a total of 300,000 people with military experience, but mistakes have been made and ineligible men have been called up for service.

Protests have erupted nationwide, military enlistment offices have been targeted and hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled the country to avoid conscription.