[GRAPHIC] How Putin Executes Deserters

In the dark world of Russia's war in Ukraine, scenes have emerged in recent weeks that have shaken even the most cynical observers of horrors.

In an investigation revealed this week by CNN, videos circulating on Telegram and other networks present a hard-to-digest picture of how Russian soldiers are treated when the thought of desertion crosses their minds. It's not about imprisonment or a field trial. In many cases, the punishment is abandonment to death, public humiliation, beatings, dragging in the mud, and plunging into a world of cruelty where technology meets ancient barbarism.

One of the central figures that appears repeatedly in the reports is "Baba Yaga," not the witch from fairy tales, but the code name most Russian soldiers give to the large Ukrainian drones that drop bombs with chilling precision. For them, it's a flying monster, something between a curse and a demon. Across the web, soldiers are seen time and again tied to trees, bound with cables, or left in open fields, looking up at the sky and realizing it's only a matter of time before the drone spots them and delivers their cruel death.

In one of the published recordings, a Russian officer is heard giving a clear order to tie a deserter to a tree and ensure he is completely exposed to a drone attack: "Hide him somewhere, then in half an hour take him out and tie him to the tree." This order is not unusual, according to CNN. It's a punishment method that has become common in the field, part of the routine of an army that holds itself together not through military discipline, but through internal terror.

In the published footage, a young soldier can be seen telling the camera that he is from Kamensk-Uralsky, a Russian city east of the Ural Mountains. He explains that he panicked from a drone and abandoned his position, but was caught by another soldier who offered a horrific deal: "Let's shoot each other to count as wounded and get out of the front." According to him, he refused – but was shot anyway. Then they tied him to a tree and left him there, looking at the sky in fear, as a voice from behind the camera whispers in cruel irony: "If the drone comes, it'll drop everything on you."

The video cuts off, and the fate of this soldier can only be guessed. But many others share exactly the same fate.

In another no less chilling video published on social networks, two deserters are thrown into a shallow pit and required to fight each other. This is no sporting competition, it's a life-and-death battle, where the loser stays in the pit, and the winner gets the right to survive and go free. Another documentation shows three half-naked soldiers locked inside a large metal container. The voice behind the camera says: "It's time to feed the animals, those who tried to escape." One of them gets a crumbled cookie in his hands, eating it with the appetite of someone who hasn't eaten for days.

But there are even harder videos. A soldier lies on the ground, a rusty bucket on his head, kicked repeatedly in the face. After the bucket is removed, he is kicked once more and then undergoes a series of humiliations that cannot be put into writing. In another video, a soldier is tied to a vehicle with an orange belt and dragged around an open field, bouncing and crashing on the ground. The soldiers call it "the carousel." A cruel death in medieval style, just like back then ,with the cart and galloping horses. By the way, this brutal execution method was used just recently by Pakistanis, who executed a family daughter who betrayed the 'family honor,' her death determined shortly in the hospital.

Back to Russia. It's hard to understand if these punishments come from senior command or are initiatives of junior commanders. But what's clear is that the videos not only document reality: they are also tools of intimidation. Every soldier who hesitates knows what awaits him if he dares to desert.

Alongside the videos, there are other voices, documented and filmed. Russian soldiers appeal directly to Putin via Telegram, in pleas that sound like farewell letters. One of them is Yuri Duryagin, who fought in the Donetsk area. In a chilling video, he says that out of 150 fighters in his unit, only 32 survived. According to him, he received only a fifth of the promised salary, and was told by commanders that there's no point complaining.

In his words addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he also testifies to an interesting phenomenon: deaths recorded as absences, just to avoid paying families the compensation due to them, without thinking about the psychological price the family pays, mistakenly believing there's still a chance to find their loved one among the living.

In his letter, the soldier details shocking conduct from the battlefield: According to him, Russian commanders force soldiers to run into the fire, even when it's certain death. Anyone who doesn't agree to commit suicide for Mother Russia, is executed cruelly. In his letter, the soldier wrote: "My commander executed soldiers who refused to go into battle against machine guns."

The Russian army, of course, doesn't talk about deserters. It is silent. But in the field, this silence is full of screams of soldiers begging to escape, families searching for their loved ones, and people who no longer believe in the righteousness of the path. According to Western estimates, more than a million Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the start of the war.

In 2025 alone, about 100,000 were killed, according to NATO and the estimate is that the numbers are much higher.

US President Donald Trump, known for his exaggerations, claimed that thousands are killed on the battlefield every week. The number of Russian deserters is estimated in the tens of thousands, some fled Moscow even before recruitment, others left the front at high personal risk.

Grigory Sverdlin, founder of the organization Get Lost, is helping soldiers escape. Operating from Barcelona, it has has helped 1,700 soldiers desert or evade conscription in about two years. According to Sverdin, there are thousands of soldiers in severe mental distress, some without any proper training, some recruited at an older age, and abandoned on the front with faulty equipment.

"Commanders don't treat them as humans," he says. "According to the reports we receive, officers prefer to lose ten soldiers than to lose a tank." He adds: "Soldiers tell us that commanders say to their faces: In a week you'll all be dead, and I'll get a new unit. It's simply a culture of absolute nihilism."

According to Sverdlin, one of the most common sentences he hears from deserters is: "This isn't my war. I don't understand at all what we're doing here." These are young and old, from the center and the periphery, regular soldiers and volunteers, all, according to him, worn down mentally and living under constant terror. This is an army that has lost its sense of justice and morale, holding itself only by the force of fear.

Wars always create traumas, who knows that better than us Israelis. But this war, as reflected in the footage and testimonies, has created not just trauma, but a deep crack in Russian consciousness. When soldiers are tied to trees as sacrifices to an element in the sky, when comrades are required to shoot each other to get out of the front, when a cookie is thrown to a hungry soldier as humiliation, it's a complete collapse of military ethos.

Will these cracks affect the continuation of the fighting? It's hard to know. The Russian army continues to advance slowly but steadily, and Moscow shows no signs of weakness. But if there's one thing clear from this documentation, it's this: Within the ranks of the Russian army, a quiet revolution of despair is building. A war imposed on them from above, light years away from the lives they knew, has become for many a personal survival struggle. And when there's no more faith, no patriotism, and no hope, even a well-armed army doesn't hold for long.

A political revolution against Putin is unlikely to happen soon. The Russian president holds his rule with strength, and he has proven it time and again, even when the most senior tried to betray him militarily. However, if there are people Putin should pay attention to, it's the junior soldiers who hold the Russian war machine. If Putin loses them, he may lose not only the victory, but perhaps also the rule of force at whose head he stands.

In this article, use was made of photographs whose rights holder is unknown or not located, in accordance with the provisions of Section 27A of the Copyright Law.