EVIDENCE of grotesque torture used by Vladimir Putin’s commanders to systematically punish Russian troops has been revealed.
Footage circulating on Telegram shows a soldier wrapped in cling film – and “hung from a tree like a bat, upside down” – while his legs are tied to a branch with rope.
A screengrab showing the beating of the soldier Credit: East2west News
His whole body was wrapped and his legs tied Credit: East2west News
A unit commander unleashes a stream of punches and slaps on his victim’s head and neck.
His body rocks back and forth, in a circular motion, as he screams for help.
The identities of the victim and the commander have not been revealed, but this is just one example of how Russian troops are seen as replaceable “cannon fodder”.
Ukrainian channel War Archive said: “Probably, the commander is inflicting physical harm on a contract soldier who, presumably, fled his position or failed to fulfil his task.
“And this is a common practice for the Russian army.”
Recruits are trained to “treat one another like animals” on the frontline in Ukraine.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, reports of troops being killed by their own comrades have circulated far and wide.
Punishments for refusing to fight and drinking in the trenches range from men being chained to a tree and abandoned to their fate, to being shot to death on the spot.
An earlier video showed one mutinous fighter taped to a tree upside down in the biting cold Credit: East2West
Putin attends the Supreme Eurasian Economic Union summit in Astana, Kazakhstan Credit: AP
Their bodies are later dumped in rivers or shallow mass graves, while their commanders register them as killed in action.
An investigation by Verstka last October exposed how executions as well as torture in the Russian army has become increasingly driven by personal feuds between soldiers and commanders.
One interviewee cited in the report said: “A boy from my platoon was simply beaten to death on the floor because he was drinking vodka after a combat mission.
“So, we spent a month at the front without communication, without food…
“We drank water from puddles, fucking, slept in water and shit. And then we went out to rest, all grown men, well, drank a little, and they started scolding us like some kind of puppies. Well, the kid went nuts.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected allegations of indiscipline, insisting that such problems are instead rife within the Ukrainian army.
The latest example of Russian savagery comes as the head of the British spy agency GCHQ, Anne Keast-Butler, revealed that almost half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in the invasion since 2022.
The new Russian death toll estimate is far higher than a recent estimate of 352,000, calculated by the exiled media outlets Meduza and Mediazona, who extrapolated their total from official probate records.
Keast-Butler said there was “new intelligence showing that almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began”.
An exact figure was not given, though the estimate is understood to be close to that total.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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