A Russian security source in contact with the Ukrainian military source relayed to Sputnik on Friday that 23 executed Ukrainian servicemen were killed on August 11 after deciding to desert and abandoning their positions. Ukrainian command was said to have listed the troops as “missing” in an attempt to cover up the killings, with Russia’s security forces managing to learn the names and dates of birth of 10 of the executed soldiers, who ranged in age between just 25 and 40 years old.
The incident isn’t the first reported instance of cruel tactics by Ukrainian forces against their own troops. In April 2022, a senior sergeant from Ukraine’s 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade who turned himself in to Russian forces in the Donbass said that after some soldiers began laying down their arms and surrendering, neo-Nazi fighters were sent to his unit to set up a blocking detachment to prevent more troops from abandoning their positions.
“There were cases of desertion from the very beginning of the operation,” Aleksey Borzenko, deputy chief editor of the Literary Russia newspaper, told Sputnik in an interview. “One has to understand that those most motivated to go to war with us consisted of a group of about 80,000 fighters who intended to enter Donetsk in March of last year, but whom we beat to the punch. From among these motivated forces, perhaps 10 percent are left, if not less,” the observer explained.
Desertion is the natural result of the terror of the permanent mobilization campaign in Ukraine, where men are drafted at gas stations, in cafes or in the street and sent to the front, often with little training, Borzenko said.
“These-so-called quickly or artificially mobilized reserves are precisely the people who surrender,” Borzenko noted. “They cannot retreat – behind them are blocking detachments and Polish mercenaries, plus nationalists. Their only path is forward.”
Russian forces distinguish surrendering Ukrainian troops as they approach Russian positions without helmets, carrying their machineguns in one hand, and then throwing them to the ground to indicate they want to give up, according to the military journalist.
“That’s one reason. The second reason is when there are a huge number of wounded in a unit who are not evacuated, and want to save their lives, so they surrender so that they can be treated on our operating tables,” Borzenko added.
Another common issue facilitating mass surrender observed by the Russian military relates to Ukraine’s NATO-style command structure, in which the unit commander can be situated 500 meters or even a kilometer away from his men, and command and communicate with them by radio.
“It often happens that a unit is deployed in an area, but their task on what to do next is not explained to them. So they reach some kind of military line, and then what? Should they advance further? Entrench themselves? They’re stuck without communication, because our [Russian] electronic warfare and jammers are also doing their job. And when the connection is broken, servicemen are left with little or no leadership. This also contributes to surrender,” Borzenko explained.
Unfortunately, Borzenko believes Ukraine’s authorities will be able to continue their forced mobilization campaign and frontline terror strategy for quite some time. “There are fewer and fewer people in Ukraine who are motivated to go to war with Russia. Their place is beginning to be taken by people over 50 years old or in the range of 18-20 years old, who sought to escape the draft and accidentally got caught,” he said. “They can still recruit a lot of people. Ukraine is a big country, but will these people be able to fight? That’s the question.”
Ultimately, Borzenko thinks that the grizzly August 11 incident in Kherson shows that there are smart people left in the Ukrainian armed forces, who realize that morale has fallen “very sharply,” especially in after the failure of the much-touted counteroffensive to reach any results, and don’t want to give up their lives for nothing.
“Those who are being thrown onto the line of contact practically all die there. These are real meat grinders. People don’t want to be a part of them. And the motivations for the war are also resulting in a range of questions, like ‘what are we fighting for? For Ukraine’s freedom? And what will the end result be?’ In other words, this factor of the failed counteroffensive will also play a role here. And if we go on the offensive ourselves, the number of those surrendering will increase multiple fold,” the journalist predicted.
Along with reports on the tactic of executions and blocking detachments, accounts have emerged of some forcibly mobilized troops fighting back against their commanders. This week, Ukrainian sources told Russian media that Senior Lieutenant Alla Kaverina, deputy commander of the 1st Platoon of the 2nd Battalion of the 115th Territorial Defense Brigade, was killed by her subordinates outside Kupyansk in Kharkov region. Officially, her death was blamed on Russian shelling. However, sources indicated that she was shot by her compatriots after insulting and ridiculing her troops and questioning their patriotism and intelligence.
For now, effective use of terror by Ukrainian military counterintelligence and neo-Nazi thugs has prevented desertions, surrender and cases of troops turning their guns on commanders from becoming widespread. However, many hundreds if not thousands of cases of smaller groups of troops surrendering to Russian forces have been reported, to the point where Borzenko pointed out that official figures on their exact numbers have yet to be provided.