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In a startling revelation, an investigation has unveiled that Russian commanders are brutally punishing soldiers who resist participating in the conflict in Ukraine. These measures reportedly include execution, torture, and deploying soldiers on perilous missions where survival is improbable, according to the independent Russian news outlet Verstka.
Verstka’s findings suggest that soldiers who defy orders face severe consequences, such as being shot or tortured. Commanders are allegedly taking these drastic steps to quell any dissent and prevent troops from retreating from the front lines.
The investigation also revealed the existence of so-called “blocking units” positioned behind Russian forces. These units are purportedly tasked with ensuring soldiers do not retreat, with those attempting to flee reportedly being killed by their fellow servicemen.
Accounts from witnesses suggest that commanders have designated certain soldiers as “execution shooters” whose job is to eliminate those who refuse to fight. The bodies of these soldiers are later disposed of in shallow graves or rivers and falsely reported as casualties of war.
In some instances, there are allegations that officers have resorted to using drones and explosives to deal with wounded or retreating troops. Drone operators have reportedly been instructed to drop grenades on their own soldiers to create the appearance of battlefield casualties.
Others who disobeyed orders were thrown into pits covered with metal grates, doused with water and beaten for hours or days.
Some were reportedly forced into ‘gladiator-style’ fights to the death, witnesses told investigators. The fights were sometimes filmed and circulated as warnings to others.
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Video shows Russian soldiers standing half-naked in the deep pit as they look down at the ground: their punishment for refusing to fight against Ukrainian soldiers without proper military equipment and food
One such case appeared in a video circulated in May 2025 by Ukrainian groups monitoring Russian forces.
The footage shows two shirtless men in a pit as a voice off-camera says: ‘Commander Kama basically said whoever beats the other one to death gets out of the pit.’
The men begin to fight as the voice continues to taunt them – ‘Finish him off already, what are you waiting for?’ – until one collapses motionless on the ground.
Verstka said it had verified at least 150 such deaths and identified 101 servicemen accused of murdering, torturing or fatally punishing fellow troops, though the true number is thought to be far higher.
Witnesses claimed that commanders also ran financial extortion schemes in which commanders demanded payments from soldiers in exchange for avoiding suicide missions.
Those who could not pay, or refused, were ‘zeroed’ – the army’s slang for being eliminated – and then sent on perilous assaults where they were expected to die.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied allegations of indiscipline among Russian troops, insisting that such problems are ‘rife’ within the Ukrainian army instead.
But Verstka’s report appears to be the most comprehensive evidence yet of systemic brutality within Russia’s own ranks – documenting executions, torture and deliberate killings of soldiers who refuse to obey orders.
Before he was killed by his comrades, a video shared on Telegram appeared to show the soldier walking on an abandoned road and raising his hands in surrender
The Independent outlet said it was able to identify name, rank, age, and unit for more than 60 of the 101 alleged perpetrators.
Most are mid-ranking officers in their 30s and 40s, many of them veterans of earlier Russian campaigns or transfers from penal battalions.
Few, if any, have faced prosecution.
Initially most of the reports of internal executions came mainly from penal formations made up of ex-convicts recruited from prisons.
But Verstka’s database shows the practice has now spread to regular army units as a culture of impunity and the influx of former prisoners have ‘normalised violence’ across the front, the report says.
The outlet also obtained official data showing that Russia’s main military prosecutor’s office received nearly 29,000 complaints from soldiers and their families in the first half of 2025 alone – more than 12,000 relating to punishment inflicted by their own superiors.
A source inside the prosecutor’s office told Verstka there is an informal ban on investigating cases against commanders serving in combat zones.