Russia's military veterans condemn Ukraine war and slam 'idiot' Putin
‘This idiot Putin has gotten himself into a war we cannot win’: Russia’s military veterans condemn Ukraine invasion… and say Vladimir has doomed his army to defeat
- Veterans have blamed Putin for the ‘unjust’ war which could destroy Russia
- The brave former troops risk arrest and jail for criticising Putin and the war
- Opposition to the invasion has grown since Putin announced mobilisation
Russia’s military veterans have lined up to slam Vladimir Putin and his faltering war in Ukraine, branding the tyrant an ‘idiot’.
After the despot ordered his partial mobilisation last month in a dramatic escalation of the botched invasion, anti-Kremlin opposition has only grown with thousands fleeing the country or arrested for anti-war protests.
Vitaly Votanovsky, who rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Russian Air Force, is now a vociferous political activist who has been detained multiple times for photographing the graves of dead Russian soldiers.
He told the Moscow Times: ‘Putin destroyed the country’s military mobilisation resources with his own hands and now this idiot has gotten himself into the war with the entire world.
‘He created circumstances in which we cannot win.’
A Ukrainian national flag is displayed in front of a destroyed house near Izyum, eastern Ukraine
Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilisation begin their military training in Rostov
Ukrainian service members dismount a cannon from a captured Russian armoured personnel carrier
While it remains very dangerous to criticise Putin and the war, with protesters facing likely jail sentences at sham trials, a handful of other military veterans are joining the growing chorus of dissent.
Nikolai Prokudin, 61, who served in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, said: ‘We [veterans] all talk and discuss what is going on. There are people with views identical to mine, others are less radical… But most people are fooled by the propaganda.’
Last year, he co-authored a petition against the potential war with Ukraine along with ex-Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Gulyaev.
The petition was later unsigned by many initially supportive veterans, but the pair have not removed their names.
Gulyaev said he would rather be jailed than fight in Ukraine.
He recalled how a fellow Soviet soldier from Ukraine once saved his life in Afghanistan, and now his comrade’s only son, who served in the Ukrainian Army, was killed in 2014 by Russian-backed separatists.
In 2016, Gulyaev attended a reunion for veterans of the Afghan war with Russians and Ukrainians sitting side by side.
He said: ‘You could feel the chill and it was clear there was a lot of resentment toward what Russia has done with Crimea and Donbas… I realized that we are sitting together but my country killed his son.’
Ex-Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Gulyaev co-authored a petition last year against the war
Destroyed Russian armored vehicles left behind by the Russian forces in Izium, Kharkiv
The Kremlin has tried to crack down on dissent by arresting anyone who dares to criticise the war or Putin in the authoritarian regime, but that has not deterred many who served their country.
Retired captain Nikolai Smyshlyaev, 64, was convicted in May of ‘discrediting the army’ by posting anti-war images online, and was ordered to pay a fine.
Ex-officer Andrei Prikazchikov was found guilty of a similar offence.
Some say their opposition comes from the war being ‘unjust’ while others fear the consequences for Russia.
Gulyaev blasted Putin and his defence minister Sergei Shoigu, saying neither have served a day in the army and are responsible for the drawn-out conflict that has seen Russian troops pushed back by defiant Ukrainians.
His opposition led him to being axed as chairman of an Afghan veterans’ organisation in St Petersburg.
Meanwhile, one Russian official who boldly tried to overthrow Putin has been summonsed for conscription to the front lines despite having no military experience.
Dmitry Baltrukov, 43, is a municipal deputy for Putin’s birthplace of Smolninskoye in St. Petersburg, and last month he and his fellow councillors tried to force the Russian tyrant out of office.
They complained that Putin’s war in Ukraine has left thousands of Russian soldiers dead and damaged the country’s economy.
Baltrukov was fined 44,000 rubles (£675) for ‘discrediting’ the army under a new law to crack down on anti-war dissent.
Then military enlistment officers and police officers came to his home yesterday to hand him summons to the war and were greeted by his mother, with the official away on a business trip.
Russian official Dmitry Baltrukov, who tried to overthrow Vladimir Putin for high treason, faces conscription to the front lines in Ukraine despite having no military experience
He complained that Putin’s war in Ukraine has left thousands of Russian soldiers dead and damaged the country’s economy
He told Newsweek: ‘Yesterday, four people came to the address where I registered. My mother saw two policemen and two men in uniform, she asked who they were and what they needed.
‘They said that they were from the military registration and enlistment office and that they had brought the summons to me.’
The officers said he was required to appear at his local military enlistment building today at 9am.
He said the presence of the police suggests they were wanting to detain him immediately, and he has ignored orders to go to the enlistment office
Baltrukov continued: ‘Since I have no military experience, I believe that the real reason for the agenda is an attempt to get rid of me as a deputy.
‘I believe that what is happening is aimed at eliminating me as a political opponent and revenge for my position on handling the charge of treason against Putin. And a categorical rejection of war.’
Councillors in Smolninskoye who called for Putin to be charged with treason and forced out of office were days later interrogated by police.
Baltrukov (pictured) was fined 44,000 rubles (£675) for ‘discrediting’ the army under a new law to crack down on anti-war dissent
Councillors (pictured) in Smolninskoye who called for Putin to be charged with treason and forced out of office were days later interrogated by police
Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilisation begin their military training in Rostov before being sent to the front lines
They had complained that Putin’s war with Ukraine was leading to young soldiers dying or being maimed, and causing huge economic and political damage to Russia.
The politicians say they petitioned the Russia parliament to find Putin guilty of ‘high treason’ and to oust him.
One of those summoned by police, Nikita Yuferev, 34, said he and six other councillors had been told to appear for questioning.
Another councillor Dmitry Palyuga, 35, said Putin’s war ‘harms the security of Russia and its citizens’.
The anti-war councillors claimed they had a quorum at a special session.
But Grigory Rankov, head of the Smolninskoye administration, claimed that the group acted illegally in petitioning the state Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
The demand to charge Putin was a ‘provocation’ and an ‘attempt to discredit’ the council, he said.
It comes as Putin carried out a new purge of military officials today after his botched mobilisation saw thousands sent home because they were unfit for service.
The chaotic call-up has seen old men, students and unfit civilians being sent to the front lines of Ukraine in a desperate bid to shore up numbers in the Kremlin’s faltering war effort.
The military commissar of Russia’s Khabarovsk region, Yuri Laiko, was removed from his post after half of the new personnel did not meet the draft criteria and were sent home.
Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two has led to widespread discontent among officials and citizens
The appalling conditions in which the mobilised men are kept are causing increasing concern in Russia
Commander of the Western Military District, Alexander Zhuravlev, 56, has also been ousted in revenge for Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive.
He has been replaced by hardliner Lieutenant-General Roman Berdnikov in Putin’s latest musical chairs among his leading commanders, according to international intelligence community InformNapalm.
Amid fury in the Russian elite it is expected more heads will roll over the blundering mobilisation.
Mikhail Degtyarev, the governor of the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s Far East, said: ‘In 10 days, several thousand of our countrymen received summons and arrived at the military registration and enlistment offices.
‘About half of them we returned home as they did not meet the selection criteria for entering the military service.’
Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two has led to widespread discontent among officials and citizens over the way the draft has been handled, including complaints about enlistment officers sending call-up papers to clearly ineligible men.
The military commissar of Russia’s Khabarovsk region, Yuri Laiko (left), was removed from his post along with Alexander Zhuravlev (right) commander of the Western Military District
Relatives say goodbye to Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilisation as they join their military units
A convoy of Russian military vehicles is seen as the vehicles move towards the border in the Donbas
Newly-mobilised men in Novosibirsk region have to burn fires to stay warm as they wait for accommodation
Ice hockey stars paid bribes of tens of thousands of pounds to avoid Putin’s army
An ice hockey star in Russia was today fined £40,000 for bribing an official so he could avoid military service.
Vladislav Lukin, 25, admits he paid £16,000 to buy a military ticket showing he had completed basic Russian military service when he had not.
He paid the bribe before the war to bent ex-cop Farit Samigullin, but the Yugra club player could now be vulnerable to the draft in Vladimir Putin’s mobilision even though his club has pleaded that he should not be called up.
Samigullin was detained in April.
Two other professional ice hockey players Mikhail Vorobyov, 25, and Anvar Suleimanov, 22, were also convicted of paying similar bribes to the same former police officer to avoid the army.
All three players avoided jail, even though the law allows for up to 12 years behind bars.
SKA Saint Petersburg star Vorobyov was fined £36,000 and Salavat Yulaev Ufa player Suleimanov put on probation for five years.
Russia has sought to highlight prominent young men seeking to avoid the one-year military service.
However, children of the elite usually find ways around the draft without punishment.
The chaotic mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine has also prompted thousands of fighting-age men to flee from the country to avoid a draft that was billed as enlisting those with military experience and specialities but has often appeared oblivious to service records, health, student status and even age.
Some 2,000 people have been arrested at anti-war protests in more than 30 towns and cities, and some of them promptly given call-up papers – something the Kremlin said was perfectly legal.
Videos show how the army command has insisted on immediately taking mobilised men from their families to fight in the war – but then dumping them in fields with no tents all over Russia and Siberia.
‘They grab us in our homes, but then have no single clue what to do with us, and no means to get us to the war,’ said one.
‘No wonder we’re in such a mess fighting Ukraine.’
The appalling conditions in which the mobilised men are kept are causing increasing concern in Russia.
As temperatures sink below freezing in Siberia, they are being left outside and ordered to build campfires.
‘We’re gonion to be in no fit state if this shambles of an army ever gets us to Ukraine,’ said a mobilised engineer, who was taken with five hours notice from his wife and two children.
In Yakutia – Russia’s largest region – 300 men were returned home because they were wrongly mobilised amid the chaotic recruitment process.
In one video from Omsk region, Siberia a conscript says: ‘They dumped us in a field. ‘No f***ing idea what we are doing here. ‘We are not alone here. ‘There are some 800 of us – we are waiting. ‘We are certainly not the first ones [dumped like this], and not the last.’
Another video has a mobilised civilian saying: ‘We were placed here outside Omsk Airborne unit. ‘They told us ‘Figure yourselves out, burn fires and sleep in the street’. ‘So we decided to have a drink, because we need to get warm.’
Among those dumped in the open are men mobilised in the Arctic outpost of Norilsk.
The commentator says: ‘There is f**k all around here… ‘Men are….living like this outdoors for a week.’
A video shows a couple kissing through a metal fence before the man is taken away to the war
The army command has insisted on immediately taking mobilised men from their families to fight in the war but they have been forced to sleep on the floor
As temperatures sink below freezing in Siberia, they are being left outside and ordered to build campfires
An ice hockey star has also been fined for bribing an official with £16,000 in a bid to avoid military service.
A leading Russian commentator Maxim Yusin, a foreign policy analyst, has told pro-Putin propagandists to get real over the war in Ukraine admitting ‘things are not going so well’.
In an unusual expression of doubt, he urged them to stop publicly boasting Moscow forces would ‘liberate’ strategic Zaporizhzhia or saying that the chaotic mobilisation of reservists will help gain victory for the Kremlin.
He told an NTV war discussion: ‘It’s a bit wild to pontificate about how we will liberate Zaporizhzhia with 710,000 residents
‘Ask anyone here, when they are in the make-up room.
‘I think anyone will honestly admit they don’t know whether mobilisation will help us or not to change the course of military actions.
‘So far, things are not going so well.
‘It’s easy to say ‘after the liberation of Zaporizhzhia’….try liberating it, the way everything is going.’
Newly-mobilised men from across Russia share pictures and videos with complaints about them having to sleep on the floor
Tens of thousands of Russian men were suddenly called up into the military and tens of thousands of others fled abroad
Staunchly pro-Kremlin TV is owned by Gazprom Media.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are reported to be recapturing towns along the west bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine today, with Moscow forced to yield territory along a second major front line just days after claiming to have annexed it.
The scale of the Ukrainian advance was unconfirmed, with Kyiv maintaining all but complete silence about the situation in the area.
But Russian military bloggers described a Ukrainian tank advance through dozens of miles of territory along the bank of the river.
In one of the rare comments by a Ukrainian official on the situation, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior ministry, posted what he said was video of a Ukrainian soldier waving a flag in Zolota Balka, downriver from the former front line.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute think-tank, cited Russian bloggers as reporting their forces falling back as far as Dudchany, (25 miles downriver from where they had opposed Ukrainian troops a day earlier.
‘When this many Russian channels are sounding the alarm, it usually means they’re in trouble,’ he wrote on Twitter.
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