Russian guardsmen case reveals dissent in security force over invasion of Ukraine

Russian guardsmen case reveals dissent in security force over invasion of Ukraine

Read time: 5 minutes

Russian guardsmen case reveals dissent in security force over invasion of Ukraine.

Twelve members of Rosgvardia were sacked for refusing to join the invasion.

March 31, 2022.

After Mikhail Benyash, a Russian lawyer, said he would be defending a group of national guardsmen who refused to join the war in Ukraine, he was inundated with calls from across the country.

“A lot of people don’t want to go and fight,” Benyash said by telephone from the southern city of Krasnodar, adding that about 1,000 people had been in touch with his team, as he pursues the first court case to officially reveal dissent inside the ranks of Russia’s security forces over the invasion.

The 12 national guardsmen who were fired after refusing to go to Ukraine were members of Rosgvardia, a militarised force separate from the army that was established in 2016 to maintain public order and fight crime.

The guardsmen had been deployed before the invasion to occupied Crimea for military exercises, according to Pavel Chikov, head of Agora, the Russian human rights group. The day after the war began on February 24, they received orders to cross into Ukraine but refused, Chikov wrote on his channel in the Telegram messaging app.

The men argued that the order was unlawful: they were not soldiers, but members of a domestic force whose duties did not extend beyond Russia.

“The refusal to carry out the order was explained by its unlawfulness,” Chikov wrote, adding that “their direct duties were limited to the territory of the Russian Federation”.

None were informed they were being sent into the “territory of Ukraine to participate in a special military operation, about the tasks and conditions of this operation and, as a consequence, did not consent to it”, he added.

The case adds to reports of growing dissatisfaction across the Russian forces, with western military officials pointing to low morale and alleged acts of sabotage. Admiral Tony Radakin, the UK’s most senior military officer, this week said there was “disquiet at all levels within Russia’s armed forces” over the conflict.

Rosgvardia is often seen internationally as President Vladimir Putin’s “private army”, but at home its main role is to police protests. The force has been accused of using heavy-handed tactics against opposition activists. Its responsibilities also include tackling organised crime and terrorism.

Yet in the five weeks since the invasion their vehicles and uniforms have been spotted in videos taken in Ukraine. At least one unconfirmed video showed a line of abandoned Rosgvardia vehicles, helmets and riot shields scattered in the snow.

Some western analysts believe the guardsmen were likely sent to Ukraine not to act as frontline troops but to help occupy and put down protests in Ukrainian cities that Russia expected to take within days.

But authorities underestimated the Ukrainian resistance, and many cities remained battlegrounds rather than falling rapidly under Russian control, leaving national guardsmen exposed.

They may also have been deployed amid a push for manpower at the start of the war. Reports appeared in the early days of the conflict alleging some conscripts had been compelled to take on contract jobs so that they could be sent to Ukraine, indicating shortages in available contract troops. Putin acknowledged the issue on March 9, ordering an investigation into reported cases.

Putin on Wednesday gave honorary titles to several Rosgvardia members injured in heavy fighting around Kyiv — an admission that the guardsmen had indeed been caught up in frontline action.

But Benyash said Rosgvardia employees were not trained for full combat operations. “Have [they] been taught to dig trenches? To build defensive structures?” he asked. “In their line of work they handle small guns. Maximum they have automated weapons, but they basically never use them,” he added.

Some guardsmen have been killed. Funerals were held in the Russian town of Vladimir last month for several commanders of the local division of the more military-capable, rapid-response unit known as SOBR, media reports cited regional officials as saying.

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“The Vladimir SOBR division was founded in 1993 and over the 29 years of its existence, there were no fatalities,” said Ilya Kosygin, an activist speaking from a location outside Russia. “Then on March 18 a funeral was held for almost its entire leadership.” The Financial Times was unable to independently verify this claim.

After Kosygin wrote about the incident on his website he received messages threatening his safety and promising to report him to the security services. The site has since been blocked by Russia’s media and communications watchdog.

The activist said he felt proud after hearing that a group of Rosgvardia troops were fighting a legal battle over the order to go serve in Ukraine. “Maybe my publication played some part,” he said. “Many people read it and maybe some made this brave decision and maybe it saved their lives.”

Ahead of the next session in the case on Friday, the lawyer Benyash said nine of the 12 guardsmen who filed the wrongful dismissal case had withdrawn the claims under huge pressure. There had been threats of criminal cases unless they backed down, he said.

“Some are seeing their relatives turn away from them,” he said.