Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to accuse Putin of turning Russia into a new Soviet Union.
Shortly before Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, newly surfaced documents point to growing turmoil inside Moscow’s own ranks.
The material, reported by RFE/RL, offers a glimpse into the pressures driving thousands of soldiers to flee the front.
Mounting losses
According to the leaked 2024 reports from Russia’s Ministry of Defence, at least 50,000 service members have deserted since the invasion began.
Numbers from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine say more than a million Russian personnel have been killed or wounded, a toll that has strained units already battling exhaustion and low morale.
Commanders have reportedly tried to stem the exodus by sending so-called barrier troops into combat zones. These military police units, described by RFE/RL as empowered to open fire on soldiers attempting to retreat, are intended to keep fighters in line even as casualty numbers climb.
Fear on the front
Yevgeny Kochegin, who leads the Volgograd-based rights group Dozor, told RFE/RL’s Kavkaz.Realii that fear remains the strongest force pushing troops to abandon their posts. He said ideological objections to the conflict are rare.
“I wish I could tell you these soldiers are fleeing out of anti-war conviction,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just fear — when your regiment’s about to be sent in as cannon fodder and you know you probably won’t come back.”
Kochegin added that those who run are often motivated by basic survival instincts.
“That doesn’t make them anti-war activists; it just means they understand what’s happening. They’re sane people who can see how this ends — and they don’t want to be part of it.”
Unstable recruits
The Kremlin’s reliance on prison populations has compounded the instability. Tens of thousands of convicts have been signed up for frontline duty, a recruitment pool that observers say has produced frequent disciplinary breakdowns.
RFE/RL reported that nine inmates from Russia’s Leningrad region recently killed a convoy driver while being taken to the front, then escaped, highlighting ongoing concerns about the reliability of such units.
A ghost of Soviet tactics
The use of barrier troops is not a new thing in the Russian army.
The first Russian/Soviet use of barrier troops can be traced back to 1918, but it was used on a large scale during WW2, when Joseph Stalin introduced a directive to suppress “panic retreats” from the battle field.
According to an official letter addressed in October 1941 to Lavrentiy Beria, in the period between the beginning of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union to early December 1941, 10.201 troops (1.5 % of the total) captured by barrier troops was sentenced to death.
Sources: RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Ukrainian military statements, Electronic Library of Historical Documents
