No money and no shift. How the Russian army was "thrown"

 

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several communities have appeared on social networks where members of the Russian military can speak anonymously or on their own behalf about the problems they face as a result of participating in a "special military operation" and seek help from lawyers. The complaints reflect the sorry state of affairs in the Russian army, which can be judged from other sources as well. Many Russian soldiers during the six months of the war were never replaced, late payments of "combat" benefits, volunteers of the "combat army reserve" who signed a contract with the mysterious "administration" were deprived of compensation for injuries. Like those unfortunates who were wounded in Crimea or the Belgorod region, the Russian authorities do not consider these territories to be locations of "special military operations", even though explosions and shelling occur there as well.

Sometimes social media administrations block communities where advocates offer help to military personnel, and some advocates are threatened.

"Threats are coming to me anonymously, "we have written a report against you to the FSB, the prosecutor's office, get ready to come, they will call you now, an operational group has left for you," Moscow lawyer Maksim Grebenyuk, author of the Military Ombudsman's telegram channel, tells Radio Sloboda .

 

In August 2022, the court in Moscow sentenced Vladimir Vorontsov, the author of the Telegram channel with a similar name and theme, dedicated only to police problems - "Police Ombudsman", to five years in prison for extortion.

When I tell Grebenyuk that I once interviewed Vorontsov, he sadly jokes: "Will they put me in jail now?"

In fact, Maksim Grebenyuk can really have problems because of his professional activities, now he is representing the interests of military personnel at the trial in Ryazan, who, because of his refusal to participate in the "special operation", had his military ID stamped with the inscription "prone to treason, lies and cheating".

 

According to the lawyer, already after the start of the trial, the representative of the command of the unit where his client served wrote a complaint to the military court with a request to bring Grebenyuk to administrative responsibility "for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

"There are more complaints"

 

Grebenjuk says that compared to March-April, when he gave his first media interviews, he now receives many more requests from the Russian army and their relatives. It receives the most complaints from the Caucasus region and the Far East.

"The number of requests has increased. A lot of lawyers' contracts have been concluded. Now I receive about 20 to 30 messages a day, of which about five to 10 are for consultations. Once or twice a day, we conclude a contract on the provision of concrete legal assistance. Not counting consultations and just correspondence, there is a lot of such communication. If the question is simple, I try to give advice for free, if possible," says the lawyer.

 

According to him, complaints about non-payment of compensation for injuries, contusions and injuries are now in first place.

"This question is leading now. I tell the army: you have a serious case, there is no medical documentation, we are going to court, through the court and a medical examination to prove that there was some diagnosis, an injury caused during a "special operation". After we seek the exercise of rights. Now there are many more military personnel and their families with such complaints," says Grebenjuk.

You don't have to look far to be sure that Grebenjuk is right: in his community on the VKontakte social network, complaints are posted every day.

On the morning of May 16, the peaceful village of Majskoje near Džankoj woke up to the sound of "pops". As it turned out, the ammunition is detonated in a military warehouse of the Russian army on the territory of the former farm. The inhabitants of the village were evacuated, the entrances to it were blocked, the railway communication between Džankoj and Kerch was interrupted. The Ministry of Defense announced Ukrainian sabotage, while Kyiv refused to take responsibility for these and other explosions in Crimea.

"I am a member of the SVO on the territory of Ukraine, who was injured by shrapnel from ammunition after the explosion in the village of Majskoye (Crimea). Am I entitled to compensation? Simferopol, and then to the hospital in Grozny. I found out about the payment and execution of the certificate only after arriving in Grozny. All the doctors say that it was necessary to make a certificate about the injury in Dzhankoj, but it is only a civilian hospital and they only gave me a discharge letter", complains a member of the Russian army in the Grebenyuk community.

More experienced comrades answer him in the comments that the confirmation does not play a big role: since he was injured in Crimea, which the Russian authorities consider part of Russia, he has no right to compensation. Maksim Grebenjuk must agree with this.

 

"Of course, in this case it will be problematic for him to receive compensation. Because it is not clear why he was injured. Most likely, he was just guarding this warehouse. In addition, it is important whether his unit is a participant in a "special military operation" For example, sailors from a sunken cruiser " Moscow" were also not recognized as participants in "special operations", because they were not in the waters of Ukraine, that is, on its territory. They were retroactively included in the list of military units that were involved in "special operations", they were paid all payments - for wounding, for the death of military personnel, in those cases when this death is confirmed. Now I will try to explain to you. The official name:  "special military operation" on the territory of Ukraine, LNR, DPR". But this is only its name, it does not mean that the wound must have been received in this territory. The unit was involved in a "special operation", but at some point it entered the territory of the Belgorod region, where there were also "arrivals", i.e. stops in Crimea, then its soldiers should also have the right to payments and social guarantees. But if they are not included in the list of units participating in a "special military operation", and a member of the army is wounded on the territory of Russia, then most likely he has no right to compensation," says Maksim Grebenyuk.

According to him, finding out whether a military unit is included in the list of participants in a "special military operation" is difficult, but there are chances to do so through a lawyer's request.

There are also some other complaints related to the navy that are being posted by members of the military in the Grebenjuk community. Given the lack of infantry, the Russian command is apparently trying to "plug the holes" on the front with sailors.

"Guys, have there been any cases where you were forcibly driven off the ships into a "special operation (in the infantry)"?. They say, either there, or we will be fired. The Northern Fleet is more represented," writes a Russian sailor on September 5 in the community of Grebenyuk .

The truth of his message is indirectly confirmed by other sources: on September 6, Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk said on Facebook that, according to his information, the command of the Russian Navy could not find people to form the crew of the large anti-submarine ship "Admiral Chabanenko", whose reconstruction is being completed in Severodvinsk . The reason is that the basic requirement is to sign a document on readiness to participate in a "special military operation", and due to the mass engagement of sailors in combat operations as infantry, people are afraid to sign such papers.

 

Barsiki and Wagnerites

 

The "volunteers", including those who are recruited to participate in the war in Russian regions under the BARS program - "Special Combat Reserve of the Country", are much more accommodating. They calmly sign blank "contract" forms, without even receiving a copy, and then discover for themselves that the Russian state does not consider them military personnel and that they have no right to social protection, as well as bonuses for military personnel, for example, preferential mortgages.

"None of these "leopards" have yet shown me a signed contract. They sign blank contract forms with some kind of "management", and not a single copy is returned to them. Now I am helping one such "leopard", I just made requests to the army, a military unit in assigned, to give us the contract and explain its status. That status is unclear."BARS" was created under the patronage of the Ministry of Defense, but it is not yet clear whether they have an organization, which legal entity, what kind of structure it is, it is part of the Ministry Most likely, they are not military personnel and have no right to social guarantees from the state," says Grebenjuk.

According to Grebenjuk, volunteers recruited to participate in a "special military operation" through Wagner PMC face the same problem:

"The status of the so-called "Wagner PMC", and not only to me, but to many. Recently, the mother of a "Wagnerian" contacted me and said that he died in Popasna, and she did not receive any payments. Now I'm sending lawyer requests, I'm trying to understand if they still have anything to do with the Ministry of Defense. If they have, then they are entitled to social guarantees. If not, then most likely not," explains Grebenjuk.

The toponym Popasnaj, as Maksim Grebenjuk says, at some point began to appear very often in the army's complaints. The course of the war can be judged by the type of wounds sustained by soldiers.

"After March, lawsuits were brought to the court for compensation for injuries at Irpen. Then at some point they started writing a lot about the injuries and wounds received at Popasna. Now, however, no one has applied for Herson yet," the lawyer answers the question whether in in his work, he notices signs of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kherson region of Ukraine.

 

Entry one ruble, exit – two

 

A huge number of complaints and questions in the "Military Ombudsman" community are from the army, which has become disillusioned with the "special military operation" and no longer wants to participate. The problem is that as soon as a contract soldier declares that he does not want to fight, they stop paying even the money he has already earned.

 

"The husband's contract has expired. They don't want to bring him home. How to write a complaint to the prosecutor's office?"

"Please tell me the algorithm of action on how to properly resign. Now I'm in the hospital, I'm coming to the unit - they will send me to a "special military operation", and if I refuse, referring to my health, will I be fired for not fulfilling the terms of the contract".

As Maksim Grebenyuk says, if a soldier refuses to participate in a "special military operation" already on the territory of Ukraine, he has little chance of getting what he earned. On the other hand, not a single criminal case has yet been initiated against the soldier due to the termination of the contract.

"As soon as they get there and, for example, are under fire, they can change their attitude towards what is happening and decide to refuse further participation. Once they refuse, they are denied their rights, directly and very visibly, both by military personnel and volunteers. It is important where a soldier or volunteer refuses to participate in a "special military operation". If it is at the point of permanent deployment of the unit, in Russia, then there is simply a dismissal due to "failure to fulfill the terms of the contract".

He violates the contract, and a measure of influence is applied to him in the form of early dismissal. The command, of course, "works" with the army, tries to explain that there can be criminal liability for refusal, but to date, there are no criminal cases in Russia for refusing to participate in a "special operation". And if they have already ended up on the territory of Ukraine, then the refusal can result in a series of harmful consequences, such as those that the media have written a lot about in connection with the camps in Bryanka, Krasno Luc and other "basements". It happens that such soldiers are subjected to illegal detention and violence."

 

In August, after numerous appeals by Grebenjuk, the "refusal" camps in Krasno Luč and other settlements of Donbas were liquidated. It was rumored that there were "500" of them (as in military jargon they call those who refused to participate), and that they were guarded and beaten by the fighters of "Wagner's PMC" in these camps.

According to the lawyer, the "rejecters" turned to him for advice from the very beginning of the "special military operation". Now there are more complaints like this, but it is hard to say whether it is due to the failure of the Russian military in Ukraine, because the flow of complaints has generally increased.

Why do so many of the Russian military want to terminate the contract? The answer to this question is easy to find in the military ombudsman community: the Russian army, faced with a lack of personnel, is struggling with personnel fatigue, many soldiers and officers have not been replaced since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Thus, due to the mass cancellation of contracts and losses, the 64th Motorized Brigade from Khabarovsk actually ceased to exist.

 

"Please tell me if I can send my husband home if he has two small children (three years, four months). A year ago we moved to a foreign city, until now my parents came to help me with the children, now I am alone with two children. Maybe there are some privileges, laws, according to which the father of the children can return home, he has been on the battlefield since February", asks the soldier's wife.

Maksim Grebenjuk says that there is no legal way to ask for annual leave for participants in a "special military operation".

"This is a common problem. Unfortunately, I explain to the family members of military personnel that they do not have the right to be transferred. There are orders from the Ministry of Defense that the duty trip should not exceed one year. If there are family circumstances, one of the relatives is seriously ill, if there are many children , for example, then a soldier can request leave for family reasons, including for "special operations". And, if there is no illness or preferential granting of leave at a convenient time, then only the command itself decides when to replace the soldier. This is the exclusive right of the commanders. They , like the generals in the famous film about Čapajev, "move the potatoes around the map", determine who will go to battle and who will go on shift and rest. It is impossible to demand that legally."