Russian Soldiers in Crimea Beat Commander to Death Before Fleeing: Ukraine

Mobilized Russian troops have beaten to death the deputy commander of their regiment in the occupied peninsula of Crimea before fleeing the scene, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

The soldiers from the 20th Motorized Rifle Division, part of the eighth Army of Russia's southern military district, "inflicted severe bodily injuries on Colonel Musurbekov," on November 1, Ukraine's intelligence service said, according to a translation, without giving the commander's first name. That same day, the troops suspected of carrying out the attack changed out of their uniforms into civilian clothes and then left their base in the Simferopol district, fleeing to the neighboring Russian region of Krasnodar.

Ukraine's General Staff has said that there are increasing numbers of Russian troops deserting the war in Ukraine. There have been numerous reports since the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of low morale, poor equipment and training, as well as problems with command.

In August this year, a group of Russian soldiers in Ukraine's occupied Kherson oblast released a video appeal to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, in which they describe their morale as being "below floor level."

In the latest case, Ukrainian intelligence said that, six days after the beating, Colonel Musurbekov died from his injuries in a hospital in Simferopol. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email. We have not as yet been able to verify the claims of Ukrainian intelligence.

In reporting the latest case, Ukrainian outlet RBC Ukraine noted how there had been a number of other cases of Russian troops deserting in recent months.

On May 25 this year, near Svatove, Ukraine's eastern Luhansk oblast, around 20 mobilized Russian troops escaped after stealing a truck. On June 9, around 90 Russian soldiers in the occupied town of Arapivka, in the same region, also deserted.

In May, seven armed soldiers, who had been former prisoners, escaped from a military unit in Soledar, in the Russian-occupied territory of the Donetsk oblast, according to the news agency Tass. Three of them were later detained.

Ukrainian outlets reported on Friday how two men, who said they were from the assault brigade of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, said that a commander shot dead a subordinate for insulting him in Berdyansk, in Ukraine's Zaporizizhia oblast.

The NGO "Go by the Forest," which helps Russians avoid conscription, has said that, in the first year since Putin announced a partial mobilization in September 2022, it knew of at least 500 soldiers who had deserted and left Russia, although the NGO believed this was an underestimate.

Many had gone to the former Soviet countries of Armenia or Kazakhstan, the NGO told the German news outlet Deutsche Welle in September.

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