Russian Troops Refuse Orders: A Glimpse Into the Front Lines of Ukraine
Troops Describe the Battlefield as a "Meat Grinder"
Overt Operator
June 30, 2023
In an eye-opening video posted on social media, Russian troops stationed in Ukraine are refusing to fight, underscoring the gruesome reality of the battlefield they have compared to a "meat grinder."
The video, translated into English by the independent media project WarTranslated, reveals a group of soldiers, identified as "Storm Company," expressing their refusal to comply with orders to advance to the front lines.
The soldier narrating the video mentions that their brigade initially consisted of 150 members, but brutal combat has reduced their number to around 20. The camera pans over the group, showcasing a fraction of the original contingent.
The soldier group claims to have been denied food, water, and a sufficient amount of ammunition while stationed at the front lines, also referred to as the "zero line."
The Wagner soldier recalled that wounded comrades were not evacuated and that the bodies of the dead were left to rot.
"We've served for three months, never been paid," the soldier added, amplifying their grievances. The video concludes with a chilling statement: "We surrender to military police. If any of us die here, it wouldn't be on the zero line. It would mean we were killed by our own here, not in combat," the soldier explained.
This video comes on the heels of a previous one where another Storm company aired their grievances about the war on social media. The Ukrainian news outlet Obozrevatel reported in March that a Storm assault company addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, complaining about inadequate supplies while stationed in the trenches in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
Witness reports from Ukraine’s intelligence stated that the Storm companies are primarily made up of former convicts and suffer from "extremely low combat effectiveness."
A conflict assessment report from the Institute For the Studies of War explained ,as June 15, witness accounts had noted rampant alcoholism, looting, and desertion among the Storm troops, attributing these issues to "catastrophic losses”
The question arises as to why a force that was made up primarily of ex-convicts be sent to the front lines. The men in the video could potentially be former prisoners, as suggested by WarTranslated's post captioning the video:
"Another portion of the Russian convict cannon fodder refusing to obey the orders of their command."
The repercussions of these videos are yet to be seen. Questions have risen as to whether troops will spark a rebellion within the ranks, or will rather be silenced and dismissed. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to comment on the situation, at the time of this report. As the world watches, the soldiers of the Storm Company stand in defiance, a testament to the human cost of war.