{"id":24647,"date":"2026-02-24T07:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24647"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:48:18","slug":"russian-soldiers-tell-bbc-they-saw-commanders-order-fellow-troops-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24647","title":{"rendered":"Russian soldiers tell BBC they saw commanders order fellow troops&#8217; killing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Russian soldiers have exposed the brutality of conditions on the Russian side of the front lines in Ukraine, with two men telling the BBC they saw their commanders executing soldiers for refusing orders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The men, who are on the run, spoke about the horror they witnessed from an undisclosed location outside Russia in the documentary, &#8220;The Zero Line: Inside Russia&#8217;s War&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ilya, 35, taught children with special needs before he was drafted into the army for the war. He says he saw four people being shot at point-blank range by a commander &#8211; an act known as Zeroing in Russian military slang &#8211; because they had fled the front line and refused to return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Zeroing is usually carried out as punishment for refusing orders, and acts as a means of intimidation for others who may be thinking of doing the same, the men told us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Another man, Dima, who also witnessed the executions, said commanders killing their own men was &#8220;a normal thing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">\u201cI see it &#8211; just two metres, three metres. Just murders, just click, clack, bang. It\u2019s not a drama, it\u2019s not a movie, it\u2019s a real life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The Russian government says its armed forces \u201coperate with utmost restraint, as far as possible under the conditions of a high-intensity conflict, treating their personnel with maximum care\u201d. \u201cInformation regarding alleged violations and crimes is duly investigated,\u201d it added.\u201cWe are unable to independently verify the accuracy or authenticity of the information you have provided,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Read more about this story here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Russian #soldiers #BBC #commanders #order #fellow #troops #killing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian soldiers have exposed &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}