When the soldiers of the elite Russian brigade were ordered in early April to prepare for a second deployment to Ukraine, they were seized with fear. Before the start of the war, the unit was based in the Russian Far East. At the beginning of the invasion, his fighters went on the offensive from Belarus to the territory of Ukraine, where powerful resistance from the Ukrainian army awaited them..

“Very quickly it became clear that not everyone agrees with this. Many just didn't want to go back there.. I wanted to go home to my family and not in a coffin,” a Russian soldier named Dmitry told The Guardian.. He asked British journalists to change his name.

Together with 8 other soldiers, Dmitry told the command that he refused to participate in the invasion.

" But finally they calmed down because they really couldn't do anything,"

Soon he was transferred to Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, where he continues to serve after his refusal..

“I have been in the army for 5 years. My contract expires in June. I'll serve the rest of the time and then I'll get out of here. I have nothing to be ashamed of. We are officially not at war. So no one can force me to go there,” Dmitry explained..

The Guardian writes that the case of the Russian soldier illustrates the problems that the Russian army faced due to the Kremlin's political decision not to formally declare war on Ukraine.. Moscow calls the invasion, which has been going on for three months, a " Under Russian law, soldiers who refuse to fight against Ukraine can be fired. But they cannot be tried for this, says lawyer Mikhail Benyash. He advises the Russian military who refuse to go to war. Lawyer says 'hundreds and hundreds' of soldiers turn to him for advice on how to avoid being sent to the battlefield.. Among them are 12 fighters of the Russian National Guard from Krasnodar, who were fired after they refused to be sent to Ukrainian territory..

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“The commanders are trying to intimidate the soldiers by threatening them with prison. But we tell them they have the right to say no. There are no legal grounds to open criminal cases if a soldier refuses to fight while still on Russian territory,” Benyash explained..

He added that many Russian soldiers choose a scenario in which they will be fired or transferred to another unit instead of going to the “meat grinder”. The same choice was made by 23-year-old Russian soldier Sergei Bokov. In April, he decided to leave the army after participating in the war against Ukraine..

“Our commanders didn’t even argue with us, because we weren’t the first to want to quit,” Bokov said..

Benyash says under Russian law it will be harder for soldiers to refuse to go into battle if Russia frankly calls a war a war.

“In wartime, the rules are completely different.. Failure to do so will result in harsher penalties.. The soldiers will be threatened by prison,” explained the lawyer.

It is not known how many Russian military refused to fight against Ukraine. But such stories illustrate a problem that, according to military experts and Western governments, has become one of the main obstacles to Russian success in Ukraine.. Russia is in dire need of infantrymen. In February, Moscow sent 80% of its ground forces to war - 150,000 soldiers.. But the Russian army suffered heavy losses due to logistical problems, low morale and underestimation of Ukrainian resistance..

“Putin will have to make a decision on mobilization in the coming weeks. Russia does not have enough ground units formed from contract soldiers to be able to conduct stable rotations. Troops are dwindling. They won't last long,"

According to him, one option for the Kremlin is to allow conscripts to be sent to war, despite Putin's promises not to do so..

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“Conscripts can fill certain gaps, but they have very poor training. Many units that are supposed to train conscripts are already fighting,” Li explained..

However, in his opinion, without battalions formed from conscripts, Russia will soon lose the ability to keep under control those territories of Ukraine that it has already captured.. Moreover, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to receive the best military equipment from NATO countries. The Russian authorities are secretly trying to recruit new soldiers, as it has already become clear that there will be no quick victory in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense advertises on job search sites offering people with no combat experience short contracts with high pay.. Some large state-owned companies have received letters demanding to send their employees to the army. Russia also uses mercenaries through the Kremlin-linked Wagner group. But analysts say volunteers and mercenaries are unlikely to add as many new soldiers as a full-scale mobilization..

There was talk that Putin would formally declare war on Ukraine on May 9. But it didn't work out. Andrey Kalesnikov, an expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center, says the authorities do not want to announce mobilization, fearing to turn a large part of the population against the war.. The Russians “may support the conflict, but they themselves do not want to fight,” he explained.. Large-scale mobilization will lead to "

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The current status quo allows Russian soldiers to legally refuse to be sent to Ukraine. However, some military officers complain that thanks to the undeclared war, their commanders can also deny them adequate treatment.. A Russian army sergeant was wounded during a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory near the border. His commander said that he would not receive monetary compensation for the injury, as required by Russian law.. Because he was wounded on Russian territory, which means he “did not participate in the special operation”.

“This is not fair, I am participating in this war just like the soldiers in Ukraine, risking my life. If I am not compensated, I will start talking about it publicly and make a big deal about it,” said the Russian sergeant.