State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Mikhail Matveev said he would send a request to the chief military prosecutor’s office with a request to verify the information contained in the video message of the army of the Storm detachment located in the combat zone of Ukraine. They said they were used against them by “detachments” and threatened with murder.
“According to the video of the fighters of the Storm detachment (5th Brigade, 8th Army, Southern Military District, Vodyanoye village of the DPR), which was broadcast today on the network, I send a deputy request to the military prosecutor’s office chief “, writing Matveev in his telegram channel.
On Saturday March 25, the ASTRA telegram channel published a collective video message from the military to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the video, the soldiers claim that they are assigned to the Storm Assault Detachment and that they are in the area of the village of Vodiane (DNR). The appeal of the military says that they would have used detachments against them and “do not allow them to go anywhere at all”, and also “promise to destroy them”. “We are in great danger,” said one of the men.
“During the assault, it was revealed that it was quite difficult to carry out an offensive in this sector. <...> As a result, our leaders decided to lead us to machine guns, mortars, tanks. We sat under open mortar and artillery fire for 14 days. Huge losses were suffered: 34 people "three hundredths", 22 people - "two hundred". Our company commander is dead,” he said. The soldiers also note that they have never seen their leaders and official orders. “We are still enrolled in the Kaliningrad training camp, as if we were not there. Undocumented people are thrown into the trenches like homeless people and littered with corpses,” they say. ASTRA in reference to military relatives writing that most of the men who appeared for the appeal are draftees from Russia, including the DPR, over the age of 50.
“They repeatedly wrote a letter of resignation because of the age limit for serving in the RF Armed Forces – 50 years. But they are not registered anywhere, they disappear or come back, they do not move. No complaints to the prosecutor’s office, to the Kremlin – does not work. There are no human rights activists who could help with the demobilization of men over 50,” said one of the relatives.
At the same time, a relative of one of the mobilized people told the Telegram channel that the Storm fighters had been taken to the premises of the unit. “There are very few left alive,” she said.
On the formation of the assault detachment “Storm” of the Ministry of Defense of Russia reported at the end of January. The military department noted that this unit is intended to “break through the most complex and echeloned defense sectors of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. In February, CNN informed that the detachment was made up of Russian prisoners.
In recent months, several videos have appeared on the Internet with calls from Russian servicemen or their relatives complaining about supplies, service conditions and other problems that arise in the area of military operations in Ukraine. In particular, such appeals were issued by the military of the Moscow region, Perm Territory, Sverdlovsk region, Irkutsk region, Tuva and other regions. Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov criticized the publication of complaints from fighters in the combat zone. The Chechen leader called on the military “to seek a solution to the problem, not to gather and write public appeals”.
