Russian servicemen who refused to fight in Ukraine are being held in detention in the Luhansk region, beaten and forced to return to the front. Those soldiers are being «broken» by Wagner PMC mercs and the Russian Ministry of Defense officers – Colonel Nechiporenko and Lieutenant Colonel Tumanov. This was reported to The Insider by one of the military servicemen, who managed to get out of detention. At the same time the father of one of the objectors told The Insider that the Russian military leadership denies its involvement in what is happening in Bryanka, claiming that the contract soldiers are being held by the Luhansk military.
According to the serviceman who managed to escape, there are at least 130 objectors in the «special center» in Bryanka. The number of detainees stays the same but soldiers are being constantly sent back to the front and new ones are being brought in. The Insider has published information on 17 of them.
The objectors were first transferred to Bryanka, where they were held for about a week, then transferred to Krasny Luch, both settlements located in the Luhansk region on the territory of the so-called LNR. According to the serviceman, the objectors were brought to Bryanka from the Kharkiv region under a military police escort. The serviceman had been at the front for 2.5 months and wrote a resignation report, but it hasn't been set in motion.
«They promised to take us to Russia, but they brought us to this Bryanka, where we were guarded by a private military company. People from the Ministry of Defense - Colonel Nechiporenko and Lieutenant Colonel Tumanov, who serves in the Russian military police, and the third major was without chevrons and last name, interviewed us. They tried to persuade us to continue fighting, but in other units. Those who refused were immediately taken to the detention center. They would load 5-10 of us into a KAMAZ, escorted by three people from a private military company, and take us to an unknown destination.»
After that, those people stayed out of touch for 3-4 days, the serviceman said. Those who later managed to get in touch said that they were being «broken» morally and physically: they were not fed or given water for two days. Some of them could not stand it and they were sent back to the front line, and those who did not agree were imprisoned for two more days, after which they were sent to work in the warehouses.
«I saw those who had been taken away already in the warehouses, with bruises on their arms, legs, and backs, that is, they had been beaten there to make them rejoin the special military operation using any available means. They also interviewed me and threatened to prosecute me for desertion, saying we would stay here «until it's over»,» the serviceman said.
Those who were «broken» joined the Wagner PMC fighters and went to the front line, the serviceman said. One of the mercs let slip to the objector that it was indeed that military company, he also tried to persuade the objectors to join the brigade, in which the Wagner fighters served. There were no more contacts with those who left for the front after the beatings, the serviceman says.
The father of one serviceman told The Insider that Russian contract servicemen were promised a leave and an opportunity to refuse to participate in combat operations after three months of service. When they wrote up their refusals, they were detained and taken to Bryanka in the Luhansk region. They have been in detention for over a month now.