A Russian soldier from Volgograd Oblast, who was seriously injured fighting against Ukraine, has been compensated by local authorities with kilograms of vegetables, the Telegram news channel iStories reported on Dec. 26.
From mortal mistakes to brutal punishments, Russian soldiers in Ukraine face daily horrors, not from the enemy but from their fellow officers. One Russian soldier who voluntarily signed up for the army tells his story and the psychological toll the war has had on him.
A former Russian soldier has sought asylum in the Netherlands and wants to testify at the International Criminal Court about war crimes by Russia that he witnessed while fighting in Ukraine, a Dutch legal source told Reuters on Tuesday. The man, who identified himself in Dutch media as 60-year-old Igor Salikov, said he had been a member of the Russian-backed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine since 2014, and had worked as an instructor for the Wagner mercenary group in Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify his position in either the pro-Russian separatist forces or the Wagner group.