Survivors — soldiers who managed to break out and flee this slave-like, coerced war — keep saying the same thing: the system runs on fear, humiliation, and total impunity. Every such testimony hits like a punch, because it contains no “heroism” and no “duty” — only filth, sadism, and trade in human lives.

‼️ “He dropped his weapon and wanted to surrender, but the commander said: red card. At first I didn’t understand what that was, but then, when I found out, it turns out he was ‘zeroed out’ for wanting to surrender”

Ilya Elokhin is a former Russian serviceman who deserted after violence (https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/4441) and extortion (https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/4345) by the command. In an interview, he describes how he ended up in the army, how he tried to get out, and what those who were supposed to “command” did to him — but in reality, they were breaking and selling people.

Ilya lives with moderate asthma. Medically, he was found unfit for conscription — but that stopped no one: he was mobilized anyway, as if an illness were not a diagnosis but simply an obstacle to the plan.

In the unit where he served, kickbacks were not an exception but the rule. Soldiers were forced to hand over 10,000–20,000 rubles every month. If you refused, you were immediately told how it would end: an assault, a pit, or a bullet. It wasn’t a hint — it was a direct threat:

“If you don’t pay — you’ll go on an assault, <…> if you don’t pay right now, I’ll finish you right here, I’ll shoot you there, or I’ll throw you into a pit”

Some were “lucky” — they bought their way out. Others were not. Blackmail became a business: commanders profited by selling people the right to survive. And those who got in the way were broken publicly — so the rest would stay silent.

The full realization didn’t come immediately. According to Ilya, he didn’t fully grasp the scale of what was happening until the first dead body was brought to the unit. Then the illusions vanished: this wasn’t “service” — it was a meat grinder, where the living were marked as expendable.

Against the backdrop of war, Ilya’s health deteriorated sharply, and he was hospitalized in the Novoazovsk hospital. Later, a lawyer contacted him and advised him to leave the unit without permission — to save himself while it was still possible. Ilya says he was told plainly: the longer you remain inside the system, the harder it becomes to help you escape; you need to leave before you are officially entered into the rolls, before the door slams shut.

But the system doesn’t let people go easily. According to Ilya, even the smallest “offense,” any attempt to escape, or any disobedience brought brutal punishment: people were locked behind bars, thrown into pits, or hung upside down. They were beaten, humiliated, doused with water, and tortured with electricity — not as “excesses,” but as routine procedure, as everyday life.

“They douse you with water, shock you with electricity, beat you with a baton, that’s why. They tie little wires to your fingers, and they also spin that field phone, the current goes through — it’s brutal.”

And that is only what gets said out loud. Survivors describe how, in this war, those drawn to it “voluntarily” are often the ones who crave power over the powerless: abusing subordinates, urinating on them, torturing them, hanging them upside down. Killing prisoners. Killing their own — those who refuse to go on senseless “meat assaults.” And all of it happens in an atmosphere where commanders show no pity and no compassion: not for those mobilized unlawfully, not for the sick, not for those who physically cannot endure even minutes of fighting.

According to Ilya, health means nothing there: they sent even the severely wounded (https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/4510) and people with disabilities to the front — cynically calling them “two minutes of fighting”, treating human beings as disposable material for reports and money.

And the worst part is that such “commanders” remain in place. Apparently, they are useful and profitable for higher-ranking leadership: fear flows downward, while reports and money flow upward. And if money can be squeezed even out of death, they squeeze that too — schemes surface, including fraudulent “marriages” to soldiers who are already dead, so someone can collect payouts.

This isn’t about “mistakes.” It’s about a mechanism. About a war where human life is nothing, and humiliation and blackmail are currency. That’s why every survivor’s testimony sounds like a warning: in this system, you don’t get out “by the rules” — you get out when you find the strength to break free.

Source: Telegram channel “NE ZHDI good news” — https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/4552