ChrisO_wiki
@ChrisO_wiki
1/ An officer of the Russian 37th Motor Rifle Regiment says its men are being "slaughtered" by their own commanders. A former Wagner mercenary who was "eager to fight for our country" is said to have "ended up as meat in the hands of his own commanders" who executed him. ⬇️
2/ 35-year-old Anatoly Aleksandrovich Savin, callsign 'Pokhula', went missing in November 2024 on the front line east of Lyman, in the Donetsk region. His regiment is a relatively new formation, created only around May 2023. https://x.com/JohnH105/status/...
3/ According to his mother Lidiya, Savin was an ex-Wagner Group mercenary who joined the army (likely in 2023) after the Russian Ministry of Defence effectively dismantled Wagner's presence in Ukraine.
4/ Savin told her repeatedly "there is chaos in the unit, he was repeatedly beaten and put in a pit because he refused to follow the criminal orders of the commanders. Who forced him to beat and humiliate new arrivals."
5/ "He told me that he would like, if possible, to get to the nearest prosecutor's office and tell what is happening there, but he could not, because there are checkpoints everywhere.
6/ "The last time my son contacted me was on 19/11/24, he said that he was being delivered to the command and if he did not contact me in the next two or three days, to sound the alarm that they could reset his status [execute him]."
7/ Lidiya's account is corroborated by that of Lieutenant Dmitry Gennadyevich Sokolov, a battalion commander from the regiment and a fellow former Wagnerite, who has spoken out in an video message condemning the behaviour of its officers.
8/ He says: "[The men] were simply driven to slaughter, to machine guns without cover. Almost over 100 people were killed there, just to be zeroed out, they simply zeroed out our guys, our fighters..."
9/ According to Sokolov, Savin refused to lead the assault in which so many of his comrades died, considering it to be a suicide mission. He was allegedly imprisoned and murdered by his commanders as a result of his protest.
10/ Sokolov says that the Russian MOD had falsely announced that the regiment had taken the objective "long ago", in an example of the widespread practice of "taking on credit" that is likely to have caused the death of thousands of Russian soldiers. https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/stat...
11/ "There was no cover, there was nothing at all. They were driven across an open field Everyone who tried to get through, not a single person got in, they all died. And that’s why he didn’t lead his group there ...
12/ "We can't approach them through a clear field without cover. [The Ukrainians] just cover us with kamikaze drones and that's it. So we can't go even 10 metres because there's no cover, no support, no artillery. I mean, there's nothing at all.
13/ "When mortars start to work on us our artillery fights back. But it doesn't work. We come out and they shoot us at practically point-blank range. With cluster munitions, with machine guns, with kamikazes."
14/ Savin was put in a zindan (an open-air pit covered by a metal grating) before he disappeared. Escape was a practical impossibility. Sokolov says: "The regiment’s pit is guarded by sentries. They refer to the fact that he escaped from the regiment’s pit, that it was open."
15/ "It is impossible to escape from there. ... I have the impression that they simply zeroed him out, that’s all."
16/ Savin's mother Lidiya says she "started looking for him on 11/24/24, to which I was given different versions: he was in the hospital, he was in prison in Zaitseve, and then they told me that he escaped from the pit."
17/ "Now my son has [been given] the status of a deserter, and this not only upsets me, he was eager to fight for our country, he could not abandon his comrades in arms, he went to defend the Motherland, but ended up as meat in the hands of his own commanders.
18/ "I have information that my son was reset on the orders of Uzor ['Pattern'] (this is the commander of the assault squad). I beg you, help me return my son home, give him back to his native land.
19/ "And I ask you to change the status of a deserter, which was given to him illegally. He was never a deserter and after going through a difficult path, liberating Bakhmut, he went to fight again. Because he understood that he already had experience and the ability to fight."
20/ Sokolov corroborates her account, saying that the then regiment commander with the call sign Uzor (who currently serves in the 19th tank regiment) and the battalion commander with the call sign Sultan were responsible.
21/ He claims that the regiment's leadership refuses to record the injuries of wounded soldiers and sends them back to fight. "They destroyed so many people, sent wounded soldiers to the front lines, that is, ... their injuries were not recorded."
22/ He also accuses the commanders of running a scam involving making fake reports of injuries in order to claim compensation payments. Similar scams are likely widespread in the Russian army; elsewhere, commanders have been known to steal soldiers' injury compensation.
23/ "Fake injuries are organised, that is, 80 percent of these injuries go to the battalion commander, the rest goes to the soldier. ... How they deceived the Ministry of Defense [is by claiming] 2-3 injuries per soldier, that is, 6-9 million rubles [$66,666-100,000] were taken."
24/ He also says that 'Sultan' was involved in prostitution and "distribution of narcotic drugs on the front line, exactly on the front line, he was involved in the distribution of narcotic drugs very much." Corruption of this sort is widespread. https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/stat...
25/ Sokolov says that "many different crimes were committed there [in the regiment]. I can testify to the prosecutor's office, but only through legal entities, because I am afraid that now they can send me by force to the front lines and reset my account." /end