According to military analyst and independent researcher Chris Owen, Russians mobilized for the war in Ukraine were sent to the front line at gunpoint near Svatovo before they were defeated and fled. “You are obsolete material if you don’t leave [înapoi] we will shoot you there,” the commanders allegedly told them, according to relatives.

Independent news station Astra reports that those mobilized from Tula, about 195 km south of Moscow, were recruited into the “9th regiment” at the Mulino training ground before being sent to Ukraine.

Many of them surrendered to the Ukrainians near Svatov on November 7. In the video, they say that their officers “threw them to the slaughter” and were the first to flee when the shelling began.

Others fled to the area behind the front line after surviving the Ukrainian attack.

“[Cei mobilizați] I have been “in hell” since November 1. “Ordinary mobilisers were sent at gunpoint to the front line,” relatives said, Astra reports.

“Without proper training (11 days in the training center), without provision (7 days without food and water), without weapons and equipment,” writes Nataliya Skvortsova, the wife of the mobilized.

According to another woman, Taisia, they were sent to the village of Yagodne in the Luhansk region: “They were sent in batches: one company was brought in, bombed, others were sent away. [pentru a-i înlocui] .”

She said that those who refused to go to the front were told: “You are obsolete material, if you don’t go there, we will shoot you.”

Part of the mobilized went to the front line under threats.

“My husband spent 15 hours under fire, they only had automatic anti-tank guns, they started to run away.”

The surviving mobilized retreated and managed to reach the nearest checkpoint, where they were met by the military police.

Wives of fugitive front-line soldiers appeal to Putin to help their husbands

“Some of them were told: “We will shoot you here”, “We don’t need you, you are outdated, you are meat”, [din poliția militară] they tried to lock him in a pit, without food and water,” Taisia ​​says.

Now the conscripts are scattered across the territory of the Svativ district – they live in the fields: “They are afraid that someone will come to them. They are ready to shoot because they can be considered deserters.”

Relatives recorded a video in which they describe the situation of their husbands: “There are no goods, no medicine, no one takes care of them, there is no order,” they say. Relatives are appealing to the Russian government to help them and send aid to their loved ones.

The women say that they appealed to the government of the Tula region, but did not receive an answer. “Humanitarian aid” was sent but apparently never arrived. They ask Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to “regulate the situation and punish the guilty”, in connection with which they were sent to the front without equipment.