A young lieutenant is the next high-profile defector in the Ukraine conflict. He is said to have taken eleven comrades with him. Putin’s soldiers may soon be running away in droves.
Kyiv – Rescue is very close. Just a click away. Or a few keys pressed on the cell phone. “I want to live” (in Ukrainian “Khochu Zhit”) is the name of the hot line that can lead Russian soldiers out of the murderous war. The hotline has now dialed Daniil Alfjorov – he deserted from Putin’s invasion army and defected to Ukraine. That reports Kyiv Independent. Alfjorov would be the next known deserter after Maksim Kuzminov and his helicopter in June Russia had turned his back.
It is questionable what motives drove the two soldiers – moral or financial. Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Ukrainian parliament offered $1 million for defectors from Putin’s army along with Russian military equipment. Helicopter pilot Maksim Kuzminov is said to be loud businessinsider.com He received $500,000 for his Mi-8 helicopter and some parts of military jets.
Even before Kuzminov’s hussar ride to the opposing side, the hotline was apparently in great demand. The Ukrainian center for the treatment of war refugees claims to have made 10,000 contacts from desperate Russian soldiers via the hotline in March 2023. The British online magazine metro reports a total of more than 25,000 contacts since the “I want to live” page went online 13 months ago. The site is available 24/7 – either via telephone, social media, email or chatbot. According to Petro Yatsenko from the Ukrainian Central Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War On average, a soldier in the Russian invasion army surrenders to his opponents every two days. metro reports that 220 Russians have now defected, and there could soon be 800.
Russian Army: Harassment and violence are commonplace
The Russian lieutenant Daniil Alfjorov alone is said to have motivated eleven comrades to desert. Like the Russian attack as a whole, individual cases like those of Alfjorov and Kuzminov reflect the Russian military’s view of humanity in enormous detail. Christian Göbel, lieutenant colonel in the reserve at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw) in Potsdam and professor of ethics at Assumption University in Massachusetts (USA).
Göbel says in the Bundeswehr podcast Inquired: “Unfortunately, in Russia, for example, there is still the so-called “Dedovtschina” (“rule of the grandfathers”), which refers to the extreme harassment of younger soldiers by older soldiers; Officers also mistreat subordinates, there is the violent regime in general and soldiers mistreat each other; Cadaver obedience should be beaten into place.” In this context, Göbel quotes the former Russian reserve officer and current author Mikhail Schischkin: “The Russian army was and remains a ‘school of slaves’ in which older soldiers have practically unlimited power over new recruits,” as Shishkin writes.
Germany: Hardly any chances of asylum for Russian deserters
Declared in April 2002 Wladimir Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly, shortening the length of military service was one of his main goals. According to polls at the time, citizens viewed reform of the armed forces as one of the government’s most pressing tasks; Most of those surveyed said that they hoped that “Dedovchina” would be eradicated, the online magazine writes Decoder. In June 2006, Putin signed a law that reduced the length of compulsory military service from the previous two years to one year. Decoder relates its reporting to Russian human rights organizations such as “Prawo Materi” or “Grashdanin i Armija”, which work on the problem of violence within the armed forces: According to them, precise surveys of the situation in the military are basically missing. That was back in 2017, but since then the situation has been the same as it was apparently during the times of the army of the Russian Empire.
The next significant change will be in September 2022, shortly after the start of the war against Ukraine, with mobilization and the punishment for desertion being increased to 15 years. Russian soldiers who defected before the invasion as well as men of military age who fled before the draft were deserters. The expert panel Re:Russia estimates the number of “military emigrations” from Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war to between 817,000 and 922,000. The refugees often travel to visa-free countries such as Kazakhstan, Serbia, Armenia, Montenegro or Turkey.
The German wave published information from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) “that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine until the end of July 2023, only 83 Russian refugees of military age have been granted protection in Germany. That’s just under 38 percent of a total of 221 applications from the group of Russian men aged 18 to 45 that were decided on the content. 138 applications were rejected. Although these kinds of war victims often don’t know where to go, Lieutenant Colonel Göbel is sure that other Russian soldiers will follow the Kuzminovs and Alfjvorovs, like he did in Inquired said: “’Leading by example’ is crucial in the military. An army that disrespects its soldiers can give them no morale, no meaning, no potential for identification.”
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