The Russian army is so brutal

The brutality of the Russian army is not only directed against the Ukrainians, but also has a tradition within its own ranks.

Source: ap

One of them, Oleksandr Maziyevsky, later became a national hero. In late 2022, the Russians who executed him during the Battle of Bakhmut uploaded the uncensored video to the Internet. It showed his last words, “Slava Ukraini,” “Glory of Ukraine,” said with a wry smile and a nod. A statue was erected for him a year after his death.

In addition to the unlawful killings, Russian soldiers systematically followed both captured foreign soldiers and civilians. According to former prisoners of war who were released from captivity, torture is often not accompanied by interrogation. The perpetrators do not try to extort information, but follow alone to humiliate.

The Russian army is also often very cruel towards its own soldiers. Both human rights activists and captured Russian soldiers regularly report ill-treatment by fellow soldiers, sometimes by their own officers. Officers also accept bribes from soldiers in order to receive less dangerous positions in return.

Dr. Christian Mölling…

Source: DGAP

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… heads the “Europe’s Future” program for the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin. He has been researching and publishing on the topics of security and defense, armaments and technology, stabilization and crisis management for over 20 years. He regularly analyzes military developments in the Ukraine conflict for ZDFheute.

Dr. Andras Racz…

Source: DGAP

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… is an Associate Fellow in the Security and Defense Program of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. He researches and publishes on military forces in Eastern Europe and Russia and hybrid warfare.

It is common for soldiers who are unpopular with their officers to be sent on extremely dangerous “suicide missions.” Higher commanders regularly cheat, steal the standards of ordinary soldiers, and are involved in various corruption cases. If one disagrees or tries to expose such violations, one is often brutally punished.

The Chechen units around Ramzan Kadyrov are particularly ruthless. There are cases when they extort money from other soldiers, beat them and threaten them with death. They take away their equipment and force them to perform humiliating tasks. This is made possible by Kadyrov’s privileged position in the Russian political system.

There are visually documented cases of Chechens moving behind their own infantry firing at comrades returning from an unsuccessful attack. Again, this is obviously a systematic behavior that, historically speaking, is a direct continuation of a Soviet practice from World War II.

As for the reasons, poor discipline, low morale and improper training are important components. However, the main reason seems to be the completely dysfunctional functioning of rule enforcement institutions. Even basic norms are ignored – including the rules of war, which officially exist and are part of Russian military training. In reality, however, they are very often neglected, both by officers and ordinary soldiers.

The humiliation has a tradition – for decades new soldiers have been accepted into the army with a brutal rite:

Brutal tradition

In addition, the tens of thousands of prison inmates recruited also mean that the notoriously violent prison culture is widespread entered the army. Since these prisoners – the so-called Sturm-Z units – received virtually no training before combat deployment, it is not surprising that they have not given up their culture of violence.

Of course, if there was the political will, the Russian army could take active action against such atrocities. Even if it could not be completely switched off, the number of incidents could be minimally reduced. Apparently, however, the trend is going in the other direction. As casualties in Russia mount and the willingness of Russian men to join the army declines, the army is using increasingly brutal methods to maintain discipline and operational readiness.

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