An attorney representing a group of Russian soldiers being detained in Ukraine said they were locked up for refusing to fight in the ongoing invasion, Newsweek reports.
According to Andrei Rinchino, the head of legal for the Free Buryatia Foundation who is representing the servicemen, his clients had short-term contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense and were detained after they refused to take part in the war and tried to end their contracts.
Rinchino said one of the soldiers told him that about three weeks ago they tried to end their contracts and cease fighting in the war in Ukraine. Although some were sent back to Russia, others were ordered to remain in Ukraine and eventually sent back to the front line.
While traveling to the front line, the car the soldiers were traveling in broke down. When no one came to help, they received food and shelter from the Luhansk People’s Republic, which declared independence from Ukraine after the country’s revolution in 2014.
"But our brigade did not come, and we decided to go back" to Moscow by bus, but they were detained by the military police when they arrived. Their passports and military identification cards were reportedly taken from them before they were transferred and imprisoned in the Luhansk city of Alchevsk.
According to Rinchino, some of the soldiers who have been detained had expired contracts, adding: "They take advantage of the illiteracy of the fighters. Firstly, they say that your contract is automatically renewed. Secondly, you are told that you will begin a new contract, that this is all according to the law, that this is how it should be."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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