The Biden administration has claimed that “barbaric” Russian military leaders are executing their own soldiers who refuse to follow instructions and threatening entire units with death if they try to flee from battle in Ukraine.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council in the White House, told reporters on Thursday that the United States has evidence suggesting that disobedient soldiers are being killed.
“We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire,” Kirby went on.
Both the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have remained silent in response to the US allegations.
Ukrainian officials have said this week that Russian soldiers are continuing an offensive that has so far failed to take the eastern city of Avdiivka, despite suffering serious losses.
Kirby said the Russian military was using “human wave tactics” by throwing poorly trained and underequipped soldiers into battle — and then killing them if they refuse to fight.
“It’s reprehensible to think that you would execute your own soldiers because they didn’t want to follow orders,” the spokesman said during Thursday’s White House briefing.
He called the threats to kill soldiers from retreating forces “barbaric.”
“I think it’s a symptom of how poorly Russia’s military leaders know they’re doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective,” Kirby added.
The White House did not provide any details, such as how many Russian troops have been executed on the orders of their commanders for failing to follow orders, or any specific examples of units threatened with execution for seeking to retreat.
While prior reports, including one from the British Ministry of Defense, have suggested that the regular Russian military has deployed “barrier troops” to shoot any would-be deserters, the most recent material provides further support for this theory.
A Ukrainian military spokesman claims that since October 10, over 5,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, and 400 armored vehicles have been destroyed southwest of Donetsk City near the villages of Avdiivka and Marinka.
Kirby said in his update that since Oct. 11, Russia had lost “at least 125 units of armored vehicles around Avdiivka and more than a battalion’s worth of military equipment.”
The spokesman for the White House further said that the Russian troops in Avdiivka are experiencing “low morale.”
“They are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress, particularly in the Donbas, the Donetsk areas, that they are literally throwing young men into the fight who haven’t been properly trained, haven’t been properly equipped, and certainly are not being properly led.”
