Multiple reports about Russian soldiers being allegedly detained have come out (Picture: The Insider)
A Russian soldier who refused to keep fighting in Ukraine was detained and beaten until his face was covered in blood, his dad claims.
The parent, who used the fake name Sergei, said his son Stas and several others were stripped of their weapons and placed under armed guard.
He told the BBC: ‘They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him.
‘They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. He refused so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. He told me his face was covered in blood.’
Stas claims they threatened to kill him before someone said they wanted him to work in the storeroom.
He was a serving officer in the Russian army when Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February.
Initially, he ‘believed it was right’ despite his dad trying to convince him not to go to war.
Putin initially said he was only sending professional soldiers into Ukraine (Picture: Getty)
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He said things changed when Stas found out he had been sent to fight with ‘no intelligence gathering, no preparation and no cover’.
Stas eventually made the ‘difficult decision’ to hand in his written notice of refusal to fight.
While he was allegedly placed under armed guard, Sergei made multiple trips to the frontline to try and get his son released. Stas was eventually sent back to Russia.
Other people have told similar stories, with one mum claiming her Russian lieutenant son was placed in detention for refusing to carry out orders.
‘He had refused to lead his men to a certain death,’ the mum said.
Stories about disillusioned soldiers abandoning their posts have emerged ever since the war started.
Putin originally said only professional fighters would be sent to Ukraine but this changed by September, when hundreds of thousands of Russian men were drafted.
The Kremlin has denied all these claims, with Putin saying: ‘We do not have any camps or incarceration facilities, or the like for Russian soldiers.
‘This is all nonsense and fake claims and there is nothing to back them up with.’
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‘They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. He refused so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol.’
