Violence, crime and massacres in the Russian military

Most of them were written about the troops sent to Ukraine - based on false statements that were made public, according to a New York Times investigation.

Violence, crime and murder in the Russian army

It is common and documented among soldiers sent to Ukraine: according to a New York Times investigation based on reports erroneously published in the press

Over the past few months, a mistake by the Russian government has led to thousands of official complaints filed by Russian soldiers and their families appearing online.The New York Times contacted some of the authors of the complaints to analyze, verify and consolidate them.The documents detail brutality, repression, corruption, violence and murder by Russian troops in Ukraine. Soldiers are forcibly recruited, sick or injured, beaten, tied to trees and sent on missions where death is almost certain when their superiors decide they must be eliminated or do not pay to avoid them.

Forced conscription, torture and abuse in the Russian military have already been reported, as has the tendency to use soldiers in repeated attacks, especially without concern for major casualties in the field.A New York Times investigation corroborates these practices with video documentation, medical reports, and documentary descriptions and cases.

The mistakenly accessed documents date from April to September 2025: they were directed to the office of Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova, who reports directly to Vladimir Putin.They were discovered by a soldier who wanted to check the status of his file and entered the wrong number: instead of receiving an error message, he could access another file.He reported this to the Berlin-based Russian online newspaper Echo, which found that more than 9,000 complaints had been seen.The newspaper downloaded the material and made it available to the New York Times: 6,000 complaints related to the war in Ukraine, half were requests for information about missing soldiers, 1,500 reported illegal conduct related to the war, and 300 were filled by the soldiers themselves.

The New York Times continued to sort out and confirm the complaints, and received the usual response from Moskalkova's office.In about 70 cases, the newspaper received confirmation from interested parties: they actually wrote and sent the complaint.A few dozen people added details, videos, photos, voice memos, previous text messages, medical reports, military records and legal complaints proving the reported facts.Many did so anonymously for fear of repercussions: they argued that most violence and abuse went unreported, precisely because of fear.

The greatest brutality and violence involved units recruited from prisons and defense detention centers.about three yearsConvicted or awaiting-trial prisoners have been offered the option of avoiding trial or commuting their sentence to one or more years of military service in Ukraine.Complaints related to this phase as well: prisoners were forced to opt for the draft, and were sometimes arrested on false charges to force them into military service.Then, at the end of the mandatory year, he was forced to serve for a longer period of time under the threat of being sent to assault troops with a very high death rate.

Within the frontline units, soldiers are often punished in a violent and cruel way: witnesses have been gathered of soldiers tied or handcuffed to trees, outside, for whole days, without food, water or the opportunity to use a bathroom.Others were handcuffed to the radiators in the barracks, locked in cellars, left for days in pits, beaten by fellow soldiers or superiors.According to reports, commanders collect bribes to exempt soldiers from the most dangerous missions, those where the likelihood of death is greatest.

Many complaints are related to the treatment of the sick and wounded: soldiers are sent back to the front line even in the most uncertain state of health, with gunshot wounds, broken limbs, advanced chronic diseases, injuries and trauma.Medical aid is reduced, soldiers shown to military hospitals are often quickly discharged, and if they care for civilians, they are forcibly removed from hospitals and barracks.At least one confirmed video shows a soldier walking on crutches.

Freed prisoners of war are also immediately sent to the front, usually on the day of liberation.In recent years, Russia and Ukraine have completed several prisoner exchanges, and Russia has redeployed these soldiers for new attacks.

A few dozen complaints later report the use of nullification or "nothing": the commanders are accused of wanting to fire them for indiscipline, disobedience, perceived inefficiency, or not paying enough wages to survive without the possibility.The tunnels were detonated and left no trace.'Another adds that the commanders of the slain soldiers stole money from their bank accounts.

One case in which a soldier's family decided to speak openly with the New York Times, allowing it to use his real name, sums up many of these situations.

Sayyid Murtazaliyev, 18, is from Dagestan, a republic in the southwestern Caucasus region of the Russian Federation, which is characterized by ethnic diversity and Islamic extremism. Many of the forced laborers of the Putin regime include people from the republic. Murtazaliyev and his friend traveled to a city near Moscow, where he was arrested for credit card fraud: before his trial, he was also pressuredforcefully joined the army to avoid any kind of punishment. As a result, he was placed in the unit where some complaints were already presented: There, he sent his mother various videos where he said that the commanders ordered him to pay 15,000 dollars to other soldiers who wanted to avoid an operation that was described as "killing." He did, but he was sent on this mission, or Mission Zero, in his mind, to hide the evidenceblack. The family has not heard from him since March 7, the day of the last video message.

Russia does not officially release the number of soldiers killed or wounded (or in Ukraine), but international media and projects based on open-source databases estimate the number of soldiers killed, wounded or missing more than one million, and the number of dead confirmed through bereaved and family social media posts more than 150,000.In the invasion of Ukraine, Putin's regime used a large number of soldiers despite not being active in the military.in the whole field.