1/ Sick and wounded Russian soldiers have been held for months in an open-air pit in the ground to 'remotivate' them, according to two military paramedics. They say that their regiment's deputy political officer is removing soldiers from hospital and imprisoning them. ⬇️
2/ Ahmed Gadzhi and Georg Vladislavovich Kurbanov, two military paramedics with the 135th Motorized Rifle (Assault) Regiment of the 19th Motorized Rifle Division, have recorded a video message describing abuses carried out by their deputy political officer, Major Karnaev.
3/ Political officers (known as zampolits or politruks) are a Soviet tradition revived by Vladimir Putin. They are responsible for maintaining morale and discipline within their units. This has often made them the subject of complaints when they take brutal approaches.
4/ According to the soldiers, Karnaev – whom they call "the Butcher" – is abusing the wounded and sick by holding them in a pit for up to three or four months at a time. The Russians have been using open-air pits, known as zindans, as a routine means of punishment since 2022.
5/ Gadzhi says that the length of detention "varies [from person to person], that is, Major Karnaev himself sets the terms of their detention." He reports that people are being taken from hospital and placed in the pit to force them to agree 'voluntarily' to join assault squads.
6/ The two soldiers also say that Karnaev is threatening other soldiers with being sent on an assault – essentially, to their deaths – to intimidate them into not reporting what is being done to the sick and wounded.
7/ "In other words, people are sent there, in essence, on their final journey, all those who are undesirable, those who want to get the truth out there, to make it known and publicised. They are trying to stop this with [sending to] assaults, and everyone sits there, terrified."
@ChrisO_wiki All conceivable evil is possible with the Devil!