About a hundred soldiers refused to fight and staged a riot in a tent camp in Yekaterinburg. Because of this, they were forcibly sent to war in the “LPR”.
On February 28, about a hundred servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces, who, for various reasons, refused to fight in Ukraine (some of them are on crutches due to injuries), were forcibly put on buses from the military commandant’s office in Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk region, and taken to Yekaterinburg.
There, the men were housed in a tent city 20 kilometers away from Koltsovo Airport. (ASTRA has an accurate geolocation of the town). The men demanded to be given the opportunity to write reports on their refusal to continue their service and tried to summon investigators to the scene.
Instead, on February 28, they were forcibly put on a plane to send them to Rostov and then to Ukraine, but the military “staged a riot.” The mother of one of the servicemen, his friend and girlfriend told ASTRA about this, as well as the servicemen themselves in the video, which is available to ASTRA.
“Today is 02/28/2025. Here, we’ve gathered everyone. There should have been an investigation, but without an investigation and trial, we are all crippled, without any medical help. We are all healthy according to the documents, however, you can see that we are standing on sticks and crutches. We’re barely holding on, but they’re sending us away. They didn’t accept us at the hospital, they sent us to the unit too, they said we were nobody, traitors to the motherland. We agree to continue serving, but we ask to be cured. Many of the guys were supposed to be hospitalized today, but we were loaded onto buses and taken here to Koltsovo Airport. After that, they want to send us to the war. Where is justice? What are we fighting for and who are we fighting for, if no one needs us,” the men said on the the video from the tent city, which is available to ASTRA.
The servicemen who were forcibly tried to be sent to war are listed in various military units. They were taken to Chebarkul for the duration of the preliminary investigation and trial as “military personnel whose actions show signs of a crime under Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (unauthorized abandonment of a unit),” follows from an extract from the order of the head of the Chebarkul local garrison, which is available to ASTRA. According to the document, there were military personnel from the military units 35390, 31134, 01005, 01007, 41867, 95378, 16544 and others. There are both mobilized and volunteers among them. Many people use crutches or have other health problems.
“We ask to be convicted, but no one gives us this opportunity. <…> We ask you to support us, we don’t just want to die. Someone has children, we have people with disabilities here, everyone is injured, sick. <…> This is lawlessness,” the soldiers stated in the video, which was recorded on the evening of February 28.
By lunchtime on March 1, the military came into contact and reported that in the morning they had been forcibly put on a plane to Rostov, and then on buses to Lugansk. The men were brought to the “LPR” and their phones were taken away.
“The military police, there were about 20 of them, all armed, and they forced us to board. They deceived us, they said that there were officers on board the plane and it would be possible to talk to them, but in the end there was no one there. Now we have arrived in Rostov and we are being transported by buses to Lugansk. They didn’t even give us water. We are not allowed to enter the store, there are about 150 of us. We haven’t eaten in two days. Phones are not being taken away yet, let’s see what happens next. They said it would be possible to write a report on refusal of military service there. And there will allegedly be investigators on the spot. Many agree to write a waiver. It’s better to go to prison,” one of the soldiers told ASTRA.
But relatives of the servicemen doubt that the men in Lugansk will have the opportunity to write reports.
“At 8:30 p.m. yesterday, my son called and said that they were already in the Luhansk region, there was about an hour left to drive and added that their phones were being taken away from them all now. They were told that they were being taken to a military unit, where they could write reports on their refusal to participate in hostilities. But this is very doubtful — why take them to the Luhansk region to sign the reports?” — says ASTRA, the mother of one of the contractors. The man refuses to fight due to injury.
“He asked for a thousand rubles to be transferred to him, he says they managed to be letgo to the store to buy food and water, they ate on the way for the first time in two days — at their own expense,” the woman added.
“My friend wrote that they had been divided into KAMAZ trucks in the Luhansk region and were being driven in different directions. He hasn’t been in touch since last night either,” a relative of another soldier told ASTRA.
