"You can put us in jail!" Russians soldiers fed up with war filmed threatening rebellion

A group of mobilized Russian soldiers sent to fight in Ukraine have threatened to rebel and turn their guns on their commanders according to videos released by the men.

In the first three-minute video released on March 7th, a group of Russian soldiers appealed to Vladimir Putin for assistance, describing their situation after being unwillingly turned into frontline assault troops. 

“People are dying for nothing,” one soldier said according to a translation from the independent news agency Ostorozhno Novosti, which published the video of the Russian servicemen’s plea to Putin on their Telegram channel.

Screenshot from Telegram @ostorozhno_novosti_bot

The men in the video were mobilized from Kaliningrad, Murmansk, and Arkhangelsk and originally trained as territorial defense officers according to Ostorozhno Novosti.

At some point, the mobilized soldiers were removed from their territorial defense duties and turned into frontline assault troops under the command of the Donetsk People’s Republic. 

According to Ostorozhno Novosti, the men aren’t refusing to carry out their combat missions in Ukraine, but want to serve “with dignity, and not like meat.”

The Daily Beast’s Allison Quinn picked up the story and wrote that the angry soldiers “shamed top military brass by saying there appears to be no battlefield strategy.” 

“This is no way to fight a war,” one of the soldiers said according to Quinn’s translation. 

The story of the mobilized soldiers wouldn’t end there, however. In a rare follow-up to a Russian dissatisfaction video, Ostorozhno Novosti was able to obtain and release a second video that revealed the aftermath of the angry soldier's original plea to Putin.  

“You can jail us all! How many years is it, 5, 7, 10? We don’t give a F,” one soldier said as the unit's commander attempted to get the men to obey their orders to assault a fortified Ukrainian position somewhere along the frontline in Eastern Ukraine. 

Screenshot from Telegram @ostorozhno_novosti_bot

“No one is going on this storm. You can Fing jail us all,” a soldier said according to a translation provided by The Daily Beast. 

“...if someone tries to trick us and say we supposedly aren’t going there and then they throw us on the frontline, it will be a s***show, it won’t be forgiven, we will just go head to head against them,” one soldier says, in a clear threat to turn their guns on their commanders. 

“Honestly, we’re ready for that,” the soldier continued, asking the entire group of mobilized men if there were also ready to rebel if forced to go on the assault.

Screenshot from Telegram @ostorozhno_novosti_bot

According to The Daily Beast’s translation, the entire group responded that they were ready, saying in unison: “Yes, yes! Everyone!”

The apparent leader of the group of angry soldiers then went on to say that the commander could fight the battle himself because they were ready to leave. 

“We are so Fing angry after the deaths of our friends,” the soldier said, “we’ll walk on foot, we’ll leave by taxi. Fight your Fing self!” 

The men ultimately demanded to be returned to territorial defense and the exchange ended with the soldiers asking to rest after spending four days on the frontlines without sleep according to the description from Ostorozhno Novosti that was posted with the follow-up video. 

There have been no further updates on the story after the second video, which was posted to Telegram on March 8th, and the final fate of the soldiers is still unknown.