On February 24, Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on Ukraine. Twelve Russian National Guard soldiers refused to obey the order – and were fired. Now they are suing.
Already in the first days of the war in Ukraine there were rumors: parts of the Russian troops would simply refuse to move to their place of deployment. It is now known that the first army units were carted into Ukraine under the pretext of an exercise. Hundreds of captured Russian soldiers consistently report how, on February 23, the day before the war, their mobile phones were taken from them and a few hours later they were sent on the pretext of maneuvers to an unknown destination.
The same story is also told by their families and survivors of those who died, who are still waiting for their sons’ bodies to this day. However, at 4 a.m. on February 24, the aim of the Russian troops – and also the purpose – became clear: Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on Ukraine. On the same day, desertions are said to have occurred in the Belogorod border region. While this information has never been confirmed, it has now emerged that in the early days of the war there were conscientious objections in the ranks of the Russian National Guard.
On February 25, Captain Farid Chitav, platoon commander of the operational Omon company “Plastun”, a unit of the National Guard in the Krasnodar region, and eleven of the members of his company refused to obey the commander’s order and the Russian-Ukrainian border To exceed. The Omon detachment from Krasnodar had been in the illegally annexed Crimea since February 6 – under the pretext of taking part in the “Zaslon 2022” exercise.
National Guardsmen file a lawsuit
This case of conscientious objection became official because it is now going to court. The twelve National Guard soldiers were dismissed from service after their demonstrative step. They have now filed a lawsuit for reinstatement.
Pavel Chikov, the lawyer for the human rights group Agora, explained the soldiers’ motives: “The refusal to carry out the order is explained by the National Guard fighters as being illegal. None of them had a passport with them and intended to leave the territory of Russia since their official duties were limited to the territory of the Russian Federation. None of the plaintiffs was informed about a business trip to the territory of Ukraine to participate in a special military operation, about the tasks and conditions of this operation and, accordingly, did not consent to it”.
The National Guard under for Vladimir Putin
In contrast to normal police units, the National Guard (Rosgwardija) reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. It is considered Putin’s pet project and is headed by his former bodyguard Viktor Solotov. The sub-unit Omon (Mobile Unit of Special Purpose) is primarily used for mass events and demonstrations, as well as for critical operations in support of the Russian police. During Putin’s tenure, the Omon was particularly notable for its rigid crackdown on unarmed and peaceful members of the opposition when it violently broke up demonstrations. The fact that fighters from this unit, of all people, made their refusal to go public public has a lot of explosive power.
In justifying the lawsuit, lawyer Chikov even goes so far as to declare Putin’s war illegal: “Illegal crossing of the state border is in itself a criminal offense under Article 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And illegal entry into the territory of the Russian Federation Ukraine as part of an armed group constitutes a number of offenses under the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the statement said.
Source: Stern
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