Entire Russian Motorized Infantry Unit Refuses Further Fighting After Heavy Losses

An entire motorized rifle infantry brigade (troops that usually ride in armored personnel carriers in support of tank units) has mutinied and refused orders to return to battle after suffering heavy losses in the Kharkiv area. 

The unit that mutinied is believed to be comprised primarily of militia and civilians forcibly impressed into the Russian army from among the population of Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk, regions which were taken from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. That the troops are not Russian contract soldiers or conscripts but Russian-supporting Ukrainians who did not volunteer but were forced into service makes the mutiny less surprising, but no less worrisome a morale and force readiness indicator for Russian leadership. JL

Anastasiia Kalatur reports in Ukrayinska Pravda:

Personnel of a motor rifle brigade from the 1st Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces has refused to continue to take part in the war in Ukraine after suffering losses during fighting with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv Oblast. There have been reports of units comprised of forcibly mobilised residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts refusing to take part in hostilities.

The personnel of a motor rifle brigade from the 1st Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces has refused to continue to take part in the war in Ukraine after suffering losses during fighting with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv Oblast.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 06:00 on 10 June

Details: The General Staff notes that there have been reports of units that comprise forcibly mobilised residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts refusing to take part in hostilities.

 

Despite the compulsory measures by the command of the occupation troops, refusal to participate in combat by units equipped with forcibly mobilized personnel from temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Lu continue to be fixed of the regions of Ghana. It became known that due to the losses received during the fights with Ukrainian defenders in the Kharkiv region, the motor-shooting unit from the 1st Army Corps in its full composition refused to participate in the combat.