Russian soldiers who refused to fight in Ukraine are being held in custody in the Luhansk region, beaten and forced to return to the front. The fighters of the Wagner PMC and representatives of the RF Ministry of Defense Colonel Nechiporenko and Lieutenant Colonel Tumanov “break” people. This was told to The Insider by one of the military, who managed to get out of prison. At the same time, as the father of one of the contract refuseniks told The Insider, the Russian military leadership denies any involvement in what is happening in Bryanka, saying that the Lugansk military is holding the contract servicemen.

According to the military man who managed to escape, there are at least 130 refuseniks in the "special center" of Bryanka - this is the number that was constantly imprisoned, but people continue to be taken back to the front and new ones are brought in. The Insider published information about 17 of them.

Refuseniks were first transferred to Bryanka, where they stayed for about a week, then transferred to Krasny Luch, both settlements are located in the Luhansk region on the territory of the so-called LPR. According to the military, refuseniks were brought to Bryanka under escort of the military police from the Kharkov region. The military man stayed at the front for 2.5 months and wrote a letter of resignation, but he was not given a move.

“They promised to take us to Russia, but they brought us to this Bryanka, where we were guarded by a private military company. We were interviewed by people from the Ministry of Defense - Colonel Nechiporenko and Lieutenant Colonel Tumanov, who serves in the Russian military police, the third major was without chevrons and surnames. They persuaded to continue to fight, but in other parts. Those who refused were sent to the pre-trial detention center on the same day. We were loaded by 5-10 people into KAMAZ, accompanied by three people from a private military company, and taken away in an unknown direction.”

After that, communication with people disappeared for 3-4 days, the interlocutor says. Those with whom they managed to contact later said that they were “broken” mentally and physically: they were not fed, they were not given water for two days. Some could not stand it and were again sent to the front line, those who did not agree were imprisoned for another two days, after which they were sent to work in warehouses.

“I saw those who were already taken away in warehouses, blue arms, legs, backs, that is, they were beaten there, trying by all possible methods to persuade them to carry out a special military operation. They also talked to me, threatened with a criminal case for desertion, they said that we would sit here “until it’s over,” the military man said.

Those who managed to “break” were assigned to the Wagner PMC fighters and sent to the front line, the source says. One of the private traders blabbed to the refusenik about the fact that this was precisely the same military company, he also tried to persuade the refuseniks to join the brigade in which the “Wagnerites” are. There was no more contact with those who went on to fight after the beatings, the military man says.

Among those who are actually being held in custody, there are also contractors. The father of one of them told The Insider that after three months of service, Russian contractors were promised a vacation and the opportunity to refuse to participate in hostilities. When they wrote refusals, they were detained and taken to the same Bryanka in the Lugansk region. They have been in custody for over a month now.