A mobilised man from Russia’s Bryansk region, 25-year-old Roman Martynov, has reported beatings and threats of being buried alive due to his having talked to journalists, head of the Agora human rights group Pavel Chikov reports.
Martynov was mobilised on 24 September. According to Chikov, he had one training session on how to shoot from a rifle at the assembly point, after which he was deployed to the Luhansk region of Ukraine on 1 October. The next day, he refused to partake in the war. “Afterwards, he sequentially went through three basements for refuseniks located in the LPR and DPR [the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk ‘people’s republics’],” Chikov writes.
Telegram channel Astra previously reported that Russian soldiers are being held by force in basements located in the “LPR” due to them refusing to fight without having undergone training. After the report had come out, Martynov came under suspicion of having talked to the journalists.
In his statement about the crime, Martynov claims that he was beaten by a man who was using both fists. “The hands and fingers of the soldier were in tactical gloves, and the blows were struck in the head and the body [of Martynov]. The man struck me at least three times in the left side of my head with his right fist and at least three times in the left side of my body with his right fist,” he writes in the statement.
Martynov was asked who could have told the journalists about the location of the “refusenik centre”, the man speculating that it had been Martynov to do so, the draftee says. According to the Bryansk region resident, he responded by saying that he had not shared the information, seeing as he did not even know where exactly they were being held.
“I was put on my knees in front of the wall, they fired from the rifle and told me that at that exact moment they could have shot through my knees and injured me.
“After, they raised me up, and without taking the blindfold off, without untying my hands, brought me outside. They left me in some sewer well. The well was narrow, empty, there was no water, it was about 1.5 metres wide. I wasn’t allowed to straighten up, I was sitting in a squat in the well.
“The armed people told me that they would bury me alive right then if I did not tell them the truth.
“Corroborating the threats with actions, they started dropping soil into the well,” Martynov says.
On 15 November 2022, Martynov was sent to undergo a military-medical commission; he was given an exemption from military service until 7 December 2022. On 8 December 2022, he contacted lawyer Maxim Grebenuk. Together, they submitted a statement about the crime addressed to the chief of the General Military Investigative Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee of Russia, Chikov adds.
On 28 November, Chikov reported that Russian servicemen that had refused to take part in combat and were being held by force in a basement in the “LPR” submitted statements to the Investigative Committee.