Several dozen soldiers are being kept against their will on the territory of the military unit at 77/1 Kosmonavtov Avenue in Ekaterinburg. They came back to Russia from the frontlines for medical treatment or examination. As one of the servicemen told ASTRA that in this unit soldiers are beaten, threatened with prison and forced to return to the frontlines.

“The military police control everything there; there are five of them in each barrack. Someone didn’t like something: smell of alcohole, smoked in the wrong place or late for the check – they beat you up, handcuff you, and put you in this cell. If you behave normally, the handcuffs are removed,” – ASTRA’s source claims. “It doesn’t depend on whether you have an operation or whether you have an upcoming medical examination… And you sit there until the next flight, they take you in handcuffs on a bus to the airport and further to Rostov, and from there to the frontline.”

ASTRA’s source says that he himself spent 10 days in the weapons storage room. During his time, 50 people passed through this chamber. The video he shared was recorded in mid-May. All the men in the footage have already been sent to Ukraine. “People said: “I want to go to prison, I don’t want to go there, send me to prison. It doesn’t matter – it’s all the same.”

The man himself managed to escape from and is now in hiding. According to him, in his hometown, security forces have already come to search his home and even his wife’s work. “My wife is shocked; my 12-year-old daughter was told that I was a traitor to the motherland. I understand that no one will help me in this situation.” This man claims he wasn’t to the frontlines and decided to refuse military service at the training stage in Orenburg, where “they didn’t teach anything, they drank and used drugs.”

“I stayed there for 2 months and saw nothing but drunkenness. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t need it, that I was mistaken, I got carried away, I watched enough TV,” he said.