Russian soldiers beg for help as their own army throws them into a pit

The Russian army seems to have revived an ancient method of punishment — putting soldiers in a zindan, or open-air underground prison

Russian deserters plant their own army into medieval-type pits with metal bars on top.

Desperate and wounded Russian soldiers said they were thrown into pits and denied food and water for refusing to fight or for drinking.

« We are in the mud, in the rain, we are all wet. My colleagues had their faces smashed,” one of the Russian soldiers named Pavel Gorelov, who identified himself as a member of the 99th regiment, said in a leaked video. «All we did was drink some beer.»

In the video, several men in Russian military uniforms sit on the hard floor of the pit. Rain water dripping. Several men are badly injured, with bloody cuts on their swollen faces and bruises under their eyes. One man smokes a cigarette, but speaks in a barely coherent way.

“I ask for help from the prosecutor general,” Gorelov says in the video. “You have just seen these conditions.”

In another video, another Russian soldier, possibly from the same unit, complains about being kept in a quarry.

< img src="/wp-content /uploads/2023/04/3604523f0c40836583d765b181ec353a.jpg" /> Flarit Baitemirov says he has been kept in a 12-foot-deep pit since March 23

Flarit Baitemirov explains that he was a volunteer soldier from Saratov in southern Russia and that he has been held in a pit since the end of March.

“I am being held captive by my own Russians. I am Russian,” he said.

The barred open pits called zindans were used in Central Asia to hold prisoners and were often used by the imperial Russian armies.

They were known for their overcrowding and disease. The exposed prisoners went crazy seeing the outside world through the bars.

Russian soldiers have been complaining for months that the military police are throwing them into overcrowded caves or pits without food or water if they refuse to fight.

A soldier in a film directed by Pavel Gorelov who said men were put in a pit for drinking too much

It's hard to say exactly how many Russian soldiers riot or desert every day, but analysts say it's likely hundreds.

Russian military tactics have not evolved since the Second World War and are based on sending waves of infantry across the open countryside against machine gun posts and trenches in Ukraine.

The large number of casualties caused by this tactic, sows fear and discontent in the Russian army.

Desperate Russian soldiers have released dozens of videos this year asking senior commanders to save them from the chaos, death and destruction of the front line.

Many people in the video say they have no choice but to mutiny.