Mobilised soldiers from the first platoon of Russia’s 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division ended up abandoned on the Luhansk front line with no help from their commanders and with almost no ammunition. Mediazona has talked to the surviving servicemen from the platoon.
In total, 93 mobilised men from the town of Alabino, Moscow region, were deployed to the Belgorod region. At first, they were deployed to a mountain location near the village Nikitovka, Belgorod region. They spent three days there, during which time they were not given food once. Furthermore, the mobilised men did not receive any training.
On 9 October, three days later, all of the soldiers ended up on the front line in the Luhansk region. In total, around 30 men ended up on the front line, according to the interviewed soldiers. Among them, there was a mechanic-driver of an infantry fighting vehicle — however, no vehicle was provided. The soldiers had to retreat and shelter in an empty house.
Afterwards, the mobilised men ran into a security checkpoint of fighters from the self-proclaimed Luhansk “people’s republic”; the letter demanded that the draftees hand over their weapons. The Russian men slept over at the checkpoint. In the morning, “the soldiers were told, under the threat of one of the checkpoint men recharging a rifle: ‘Guys, give us your bulletproof vests and helmets’”.
Only 15 members of the first platoon made it to the checkpoint, the fate of the others is unknown to the interviewees. No one from command ended up coming to the checkpoint to take them back.
Later, the soldiers came under fire in the city of Svatove, Luhansk region. Afterwards, they managed to contact their relatives and tell them what happened. In response, the relatives contacted the Prosecutor’s Office.
Thirteen people from the first platoon made their way from Svatove to the Russian border with soldiers from other withdrawing units, one of the surviving soldiers Vladislav tells Mediazona. As of 23 October, the men were in a Belgorod region military unit, waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to deal with the soldiers’ complaint about the way they were treated by their commanders.
