Yuri Josef Koszarycz
April 14, 2025
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐งโ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ญ. ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐. ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ฐ๐๐ซ.
Despite catastrophic losses in Ukraine โ more than in all of Russiaโs wars since 1945 combined โ Russian soldiers continue to obey. Not out of loyalty or belief, but because refusal is punished with terror.
Discipline in the Russian army is enforced through beatings, threats, and execution. Commanders employ โmeat grinderโ tactics, sending wave after wave of ill-equipped men into certain death. Brutal hazing, known as dedovshchina, subjects recruits to relentless abuse โ including theft, beatings, and rape.
In the mid-2000s, one conscript had to have his legs and genitalia amputated after a horrific assault. In 2018, another took his own life after fellow soldiers carved โIโm a loserโ into his forehead. In 2019, 20-year-old Ramil Shamsutdinov snapped. After enduring daily beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of rape, he shot and killed eight fellow soldiers. The army tried to blame mental illness โ rather than its own institutional cruelty.
Deserters face execution. Rosgvardiya and barrier troops are ordered to shoot anyone who flees. Since 2022, over 1,000 cases of soldiers being imprisoned in underground cells or pits have been documented. Commanders threaten death for retreat, and sometimes their own troops carry out the punishment. In 2023, one soldier was beaten to death by his unit after trying to stop their drunken violence. Similar cases abound โ with drunken troops murdering civilians and comrades alike. To cover it up, commanders often list these deaths as combat losses.
And then thereโs the money. Enlistment bonuses range from $5,000 to $50,000 โ a fortune in regions like Dagestan or Buryatia, where the average monthly wage is under $400. Death payouts can reach $60,000, making military service a grim lifeline for impoverished families.
War crimes are rewarded. The 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, responsible for atrocities in Bucha, received medals and promotions. In April 2022, Putin personally decorated soldiers accused of torture and execution.
Ukraine will prevail. Because it fights not with cruelty and lies โ but with courage, truth, and the will to live free. ๐บ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฆ
To offer a bit of context here: during the very early putler era, everyone was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Dubya โlooked into his eyesโ and Tony Blair even inflicted the rat nazi on the late Queen; inviting him to a dinner at Buckingham Palace.
At that time, I met in my capacity as a business advisor, a russian woman who had a UK passport and worked for a global consulting firm in London.
She was patriotic, pro-putler and at that time had no anti-western views; very much the opposite in fact. But she did tell me something I remembered, which was that russian mothers with good-looking young sons were very wary of letting them join the army. The reason was โhazingโ, plus something worse which is very likely still to be prevalent today: officers would pimp out these boys to their fellow perverts. Suicides were common, but covered up.