Russia dismisses 115 National Guards for refusing to fight

A RUSSIAN court yesterday ordered the dismissal of more than 100 National Guard officers who had refused to be deployed to Ukraine – the first official ruling on a case that has shed light on internal dissatisfaction with the war.

The dispute involved 115 members of the Russian National Guard – a domestic security agency separate from the armed forces – from the North Caucasus, in what appears to be the largest group of officers to refuse to partake in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A military court in the Kabardinobalkaria region ruled that the guardsmen “arbitrarily refused to perform an official assignment” when they rejected calls to be deployed in what Russia calls its “special military operation”.

The men had appealed against being fired, but the ruling, which was posted on the court’s website, backed the guardsmen’s superiors, saying the men were guilty of “flagrant violations”.

The hearing was held behind closed doors for reasons of “military secrecy.”

President Vladimir Putin has never formally declared a war on Ukraine or imposed martial law, which means that Russia cannot legally send conscripts or force anyone to go and fight in Ukraine.

Human rights activists have reported several groups of guardsmen and troops who have chosen to risk losing their jobs rather than be sent to Ukraine, where thousands of soldiers are believed to have been killed.

While the number of Russian soldiers refusing to fight is believed to be substantial, Kremlin officials have sought to portray them as isolated cases.

Pavel Chikov, head of the human rights lawyers’ association Agora, said Russian servicemen in 17 different regions had reached out to the group since the start of the war after their superiors threatened them with dismissal or criminal charges for refusing to take part in the military campaign.

In the southern city of Krasnodar, 12 guardsmen from a riot police unit were fired after they were taken to military drills in Crimea and disobeyed orders to cross the border into Ukraine on the second day of the invasion.

By the time their case reached the court, nine of the men had withdrawn their claims of unfair dismissal.

In Russia’s west, about 100 troops refused to return to Ukraine or deploy there and were subsequently fired.

Several Russian soldiers captured in the early weeks of the invasion said they had not been told where they were being sent and found out they were in Ukraine only when it was already too late.