Russian commanders appoint 'execution shooters' to target soldiers who refuse to fight, report claims

Russia's 'execution shooters' later dump refusers' bodies in rivers or shallow graves, registering them as killed in action. File Picture: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

Russian commanders are executing soldiers or deliberately sending them to their deaths if they refuse to fight in Ukraine, a report has claimed. 

Independent outlet Verstka has drawn on testimonies from serving soldiers, relatives of the dead, leaked videos, and official complaint records, and has identified 101 Russian servicemen accused of murdering, torturing, or fatally punishing their own comrades. 

The outlet said it had verified at least 150 deaths, though it said it believes the true tally to be far higher.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, reports of soldiers being killed by their own side and of so-called blocking units deployed to prevent retreats have circulated widely.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected allegations of indiscipline among Russian troops, insisting that such problems are instead rife within the Ukrainian army.

However, Verstka cited testimonies from soldiers who said commanders had appointed “execution shooters” to open fire on refusers and later dump their bodies in rivers or shallow graves, registering them as killed in action.

Other accounts describe commanders using drones and explosives to “finish off” wounded or retreating soldiers. In several cases, officers allegedly ordered drone operators to drop grenades on their own men, disguising the killings as battlefield strikes.

Gladiator-style battles

Verstka, an award-winning independent Russian news outlet now operating in exile and founded by some of the country’s most respected investigative journalists, also documented cases of soldiers being tortured to death.

Troops who disobeyed orders were reportedly thrown into pits covered with metal grates, doused with water, and beaten for hours or even days. The investigation found that, in some instances, they were forced to fight each other in what witnesses described as gladiator-style battles to the death.

One such case appeared in a video circulated in May 2025, which shows two shirtless men in a pit as a voice off-camera, says: “Commander Kama basically said whoever beats the other one to death gets out of the pit.” 

The men begin to fight as the voice continues to taunt them, until one collapses motionless on the ground.

Verstka also linked several killings to financial extortion schemes in which commanders demanded payments from soldiers in exchange for avoiding suicide missions. Those who could not pay, or refused, were “zeroed” — the army’s slang for being eliminated.

The investigation also describes cases of troops being sent on suicide missions. It exposes cases where Russian troops were deliberately deployed as “mayachki”, or beacons, ordered to walk ahead of assault groups without equipment to draw enemy fire.

Initially, most reports of internal executions came from penal formations made up of tens of thousands of ex-convicts recruited from Russian prisons, but Verstka’s database shows the practice has spread to regular army units. The culture of impunity and the influx of former prisoners, the report says, have “normalised violence”.

Most of the identified perpetrators are mid-ranking officers in their 30s and 40s, many of them veterans of earlier Russian campaigns or transfers from penal battalions. Few, if any, have faced prosecution.

The outlet said it was able to obtain detailed biographical information — name, rank, age, and unit — for more than 60 of the 101 alleged perpetrators. Despite the extensive evidence, almost none have been held accountable, Vertska said.

Verstka also said it had obtained official data showing that Russia’s main military prosecutor’s office received nearly 29,000 complaints from soldiers and families in the first half of 2025 alone, more than 12,000 of which related to punishment by their own superiors.

A source in the military prosecutor’s office told the outlet there was an informal ban on investigating cases against commanders serving in combat zones. “They say: ‘If we open this, it could harm operations.’ That means these officers have total impunity,” he said.

• Guardian