Nothing has changed since Trotsky's 'machine gun trains'- special trains full of Bolshevik machine gunners sent to back up the front lines not by fighting the adversary but by slaughtering any pressganged peasants retreating from the White forces.
Assault unit members claim in video that superiors ‘want to execute us’ after ‘huge’ losses in eastern Ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2023/mar/27/russian-soldiers-claim-they-were-threatened-with-death-if-they-retreated-video?ref=upstract.com
Russian soldiers say commanders used ‘barrier troops’ to stop them retreating
'In a video addressed to President Vladimir Putin, a group of about two dozen men in military uniform say they are the remnants of Storm, a unit under the defence ministry.
“We sat under open mortar fire and artillery for 14 days,” Alexander Gorin, a Russian soldier, is heard saying in the appeal, which first appeared on Friday on Russian Telegram channels. “We took huge losses. Thirty-four people were injured and 22
died, including our commander.”
Another soldier said the unit initially comprised 161 men at the start of the operations.
Gorin said his men made the decision to head back to the Russian army headquarters but were denied evacuation by their superiors: “They placed barrier troops behind us and weren’t letting us leave our position … They are threatening to destroy us
one by one and as a unit. They want to execute us as witnesses of a completely negligent criminal leadership.”
Barrier troops or anti-retreat forces are military units positioned behind frontline forces to maintain discipline and prevent soldiers from fleeing.
“Our commanders are a criminal organisation. There is no other way to put it,” said another Russian soldier, who identified himself as Sergei Moldanov.
The Guardian identified eight men in the video. When contacted, three of them confirmed they were members of the Storm unit and verified the account given in the clip.
The men, who asked to remain anonymous, said they had since been evacuated from the frontlines.
The Storm soldiers in the video alleged they were being forced to give money to their commanders and those who refused were sent to the frontline.
Their appeal is the latest in a steady stream of similar videos that have surfaced since January, in which Russian soldiers have complained about their poor treatment.
It coincides with Moscow’s winter offensive in eastern Ukraine and indicates Russia’s troops continue to be plagued by low morale and mismanagement. The clips also serve as a testament to Moscow’s willingness to send its soldiers to positions where
they face certain death in an effort to break through Ukrainian defences.'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/russian-soldiers-commanders-used-barrier-troops-stop-retreating
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