A soldier said they're sent into combat with other units tasked with stopping them from fleeing
Members of Russia's recently formed "Storm" unit made a video appeal to Vladimir Putin.
A soldier said they're sent into combat with other units tasked with stopping them from fleeing.
Another soldier said officers demanded bribes and would send people who didn't pay to the front.
Russian soldiers made a dramatic video plea, complaining they were sent into combat with other units specifically tasked with preventing them from running away.
The footage, addressed directly to Vladimir Putin and circulating on Russian Telegram channels, was posted by members of Russia's so-called Storm unit, who said they had suffered huge casualties.
Describing their recent efforts around the village of Vodanye, they said that so-called "blocking" units were sent in behind them to give them no escape from combat.
Alexander Gorin, a soldier, said in the video that the unit suffered huge losses in eastern Ukraine, citing 34 injuries and 22 deaths, including the company commander. Another soldier said there had once been 161 of them.
Gorin said that his soldiers decided to withdraw after their losses, but were denied evacuation. Their commanders responded with the blocking units, he said.
"They placed blocking units behind us and weren't letting us out of our positions," Gorin said, according to a translation by the independent project War Translated.
"They are threatening to destroy us one by one and as a unit," Gorin added, per the video.
A soldier in the video alleged that members of the unit were threatened with being shot if they didn't move forward.
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