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“Shot for Refusing Orders”: Russian Commanders Execute Own Troops For Profit and Control

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Roman Kohanets
News Writer
“Shot for Refusing Orders”: Russian Commanders Execute Own Troops For Profit and Control
Illustrative photo of a Russian soldiers during combat operations in eastern Ukraine. (Source: Dmitry Yagodkin)

An article published by independent Russian outlet Verstka alleges that commanders in multiple Russian units on the Ukrainian front are carrying out summary executions of their own soldiers or forcing them into “suicide” assaults if they refuse orders, a practice troops themselves call “obnulenie” (“nullification”) and “execution by attack”, according to a report on October 28.

Verstka’s investigation compiles testimonies from soldiers and relatives, as well as complaints sent to Russia’s Main Military Prosecutor’s Office; it describes cases where men who declined to join assaults were shot at point-blank range in their own trenches or sent forward without armor or weapons under threat from blocking detachments behind them.

“From the very start of the full-scale invasion by 2025, executions and torture have become more sophisticated,” the reporters write, citing troops who say commanders “get rid of” unwanted men by ordering “meat assaults” that few survive.

A Russian soldier from the 80th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division, call sign “Fiksa,” is beaten by fellow servicemen from the “Center” group. 9 .Screenshot from a video shared in a relatives’ chat. (Source: Verstka)
A Russian soldier from the 80th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division, call sign “Fiksa,” is beaten by fellow servicemen from the “Center” group. 9 .Screenshot from a video shared in a relatives’ chat. (Source: Verstka)

“There, you never know who will shoot you—your own or the Ukrainians,” one serviceman is quoted as saying.

Specific allegations in the report include a commander who kept “a specially trained person for ‘nullification’,” described by a mobilized soldier named Aleksei: during assaults, that subordinate was tasked to “lift ten men and send them forward,” and if anyone refused after seeing the conditions, “he shot them point-blank with an automatic rifle,” after which bodies were dumped in the Siverskyi Donets River or buried nearby, the outlet reports.

In another case from June 2025, a soldier who refused to act as a “beacon”—bait to draw Ukrainian fire—was beaten on video and then allegedly executed on a commander’s order, according to two of his comrades. Verstka also cites accounts of snipers assigned to kill retreating soldiers and of drones used to finish off the wounded or punish “offenders.”

Ukrainian intelligence and independent media have repeatedly publicized intercepted calls and field reports describing the revival of “barrier troops,” units that block retreats with lethal force.

In June 2025, Kyiv Post reported an intercept in which Russian soldiers discussed recruiters “coming to us” to enlist men for barrier units—a World War II–era tactic—with one participant responding that such recruiters were “total… scumbags” who “should be shot right away.”

Danish outlet Dagens highlighted the Verstka findings reporting that Russian soldiers who refuse “sacrificial attacks” risk being shot or “executed by attack,” aligning with the terminology and cases described in the Russian investigation.

While the Kremlin has previously dismissed such reports and has not addressed the new allegations, Verstka says it identified more than 100 alleged “nullifiers,” most of them commanders, and cited over 12,000 complaints to the military prosecutor related to reprisals against Russian servicemen since 2022.

Earlier, it was reported that drone footage and Ukrainian military reports showed Russian soldiers killing their own wounded on the battlefield, including executions by shooting or beating.

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