More than 10 thousand Russian soldiers refused to kill Ukrainians

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, more than 10 thousand cases of refusal to serve have been filed with Russian military courts, Mediazona noted .

According to the publication, after the announcement of mobilization, 9,059 cases of unauthorized abandonment of a unit (Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), 627 cases of failure to comply with an order (Article 332 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and 339 cases of desertion (Article 338 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) were considered. 10,085 people were accused in these cases, 8,594 of whom have already been punished.

The publication reports that such cases are being considered at double speed — the courts issue 34-35 rulings per day. The defendants are most often given suspended sentences, which allows them to be returned to the front lines without hindrance, writes Mediazona.

In May, the number of sentences handed down was a record: 844 cases of unauthorized abandonment of a unit, 43 of failure to comply with an order, and 42 of desertion were sent to court. At the same time, the number of criminal cases against refuseniks that have been initiated but not yet heard in court is unknown.

Mediazona also notes that before the start of mobilization and the tightening of punishment under military articles, Russian military personnel almost never faced prosecution for evading military service.

Earlier, Mediazona, together with the BBC Russian Service, found out that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Wagner PMC has recruited more than 48 thousand prisoners, most of whom died in the so-called "Bakhmut meat grinder" - their number reached 19 thousand people. As journalists noted, they were taken to war not only from strict regime colonies, but also from penal colonies and even from medical institutions.

Also, according to Mediazona and the BBC, which together with a team of volunteers keep records of the dead Russian soldiers, as of May 24, more than 54 thousand Russian soldiers have died in the war in Ukraine. These are only those whose names were established from open sources. The real number of dead may be much higher.

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