Four Russian soldiers have come forward to expose the harsh realities within their own ranks on the Ukraine front lines. Their testimonies reveal a disturbing level of brutality, with two men reporting witnessing soldiers being executed for disobeying orders.
One soldier recounted seeing a fellow service member killed on direct command from his superior, a commander who later received the “Hero of Russia” award in 2024. “I see it – just two metres, three metres… click, clack, bang,” he described, detailing the immediate and lethal consequence of defiance.
Another soldier, serving in a separate unit, provided an equally grim account, stating he witnessed his own commander shoot four men. “I knew them,” he said, his voice heavy with the memory of those executed. He recalled one man’s desperate plea, “Don’t shoot, I’ll do anything!”
Adding to the harrowing testimonies, one soldier spoke of finding a pit containing 20 bodies of his comrades. These men had been “zeroed,” a Russian military slang term for being executed by their own side. The documentary, “The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War,” features these soldiers detailing experiences of torture for refusing to participate in what they described as near-suicidal assault missions. Russian troops themselves refer to these attacks as “meat storms” due to the relentless wave of soldiers sent to wear down Ukrainian defenses.
For the first time publicly, Russian soldiers from the front lines have provided on-record statements about commanders ordering the executions of their own men, according to the BBC. One of the soldiers, whose role involved identifying and cataloging deceased personnel, presented detailed lists indicating he is the sole survivor from an initial group of 79 men mobilized alongside him. He claims he was subjected to torture and humiliation, including being urinated on, for refusing to advance to the front lines. He also stated that others in his unit who refused faced electrocution, starvation, and were then sent into “meat storms” unarmed.
The four men, who are currently evading authorities and spoke at an undisclosed location outside Russia, shared their accounts of the atrocities they witnessed. Public dissent regarding President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been significantly suppressed within Russia. While official casualty figures are withheld by Moscow, the UK’s Ministry of Defence estimates that over 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
The Russian government maintains that its armed forces “operate with utmost restraint, as far as possible under the conditions of a high-intensity conflict, treating their personnel with maximum care.” It further stated that “Information regarding alleged violations and crimes is duly investigated” and added, “We are unable to independently verify the accuracy or authenticity of the information you have provided.”
The comprehensive first-hand testimonies from all four soldiers corroborate earlier reports of a breakdown in discipline and order on the Russian front lines.
Accounts of Executions and Refusal to Fight
Ilya, the soldier tasked with counting the dead, is one of the individuals who recounted witnessing comrades being killed by their own commanders. Prior to the war, the 35-year-old was an educator for children with special needs and autism in Kungur, located in Russia’s Ural Mountains. In May 2024, authorities appeared at his parents’ home, informing him he was being conscripted.
He described being mobilized with 78 other men at a recruitment center in the city of Perm. “Nearly everyone was drunk,” he recalled. He remembered them shouting, “Forwards into battle! We’ll get Zelensky and raise our flag!” Ilya expressed his fear and bewilderment, thinking, “How did I end up here?”
Upon arriving in Ukraine, Ilya stated that a large portion of these men were immediately sent to the front lines. He asserted that he had no desire to harm or kill anyone and found himself assigned to a command post. The conditions there were described as brutal. Ilya reported witnessing four individuals shot at close range by a commander. These executions occurred in Panteleimonivka and Novoazovsk, both in Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, for fleeing the front line and refusing to return.
“The saddest thing is that I knew them,” Ilya stated. “I remember one of them screaming ‘Don’t shoot, I’ll do anything!’ but he [the commander] zeroed them anyway.” The practice of “zeroing,” he explained, is typically employed as a punishment for disobeying orders and serves to intimidate others contemplating similar acts of defiance. “Your fate depended on your commander. The commander is on the radio: ‘Zero this one, zero that one,'” Ilya detailed.
The execution of soldiers for refusing orders was not limited to Ilya’s unit. “Of course they kill their own men, it’s a normal thing,” commented Dima. Before the conflict, the 34-year-old worked as a dishwasher repairman in Moscow and lived with his wife and daughter. In October 2022, while between jobs, he was approached by police. “They just see my passport, do something on their laptop and tell me ‘if you don’t go to army you are go to jail,'” he recounted.
Dima stated he did not wish to kill anyone and, despite lacking medical training, joined a paramedic unit. He was later transferred to a brigade responsible for evacuating wounded soldiers from the front line. It was within this 25th Brigade that Dima claimed he witnessed fellow soldiers executed on his commander’s orders. “I see it – just two metres, three metres. Just murders, just click, clack, bang. It’s not a drama, it’s not a movie, it’s real life,” he said.
Dima’s commander, Alexei Ksenofontov, received the Gold Star, Russia’s highest state honor, and was designated a “Hero of Russia” in 2024. However, Ksenofontov has faced accusations from the families of men who died under his command. In a joint letter sent in January 2025, they appealed directly to Putin regarding allegations of brutality within his unit. “They defended our Motherland with honor and pride!!! But in reality, they found themselves in the gang of these commanders, who received awards for tens of thousands of dead and missing!” the letter read. “And they continue to exterminate our men! Feeling their impunity!” Dima described Ksenofontov as a “butcher,” stating, “He give too many orders for killing soldiers, too much blood on his hands, too much.”
Dima also described seeing the bodies of 20 men, who had arrived at his base the previous night, lying in a ditch having been shot. He mentioned speaking to several of these men, all former convicts, before they were taken away the following morning. As a medic, Dima was routinely informed of deaths. He was told that these men had been shot by a commander and had their bank cards confiscated. “Twenty lads were brought to us. They just took their bank cards and killed them,” he recalled. “It’s not a problem to write off someone. You just make up a report.” Dima stated he was informed that the bank cards were taken by commanders.
“Meat Storms” and Dehumanizing Treatment
The BBC documentary also features testimony from another former soldier, a senior staff officer with 17 years of service in the Russian military. This former officer, who requested anonymity, spoke of an individual who had participated in the killing of a group of high-ranking officers. The man involved described being part of a “liquidation squad sent to finish any survivors,” the former officer relayed. “I’ve never seen anything like this during all my years of service.”
All four men provided graphic accounts of the dreaded “meat storm” missions, a part of the broader Russian military tactic referred to as a “meat grinder” on the Ukrainian battlefields. These storms are so perilous that they are likened to suicide missions. “I saw them [commanders] send wave after wave, throwing men like meat at the Ukrainians, so they run out of ammo and drones and another wave can reach their objective,” stated another former soldier, Denis.
According to the UK Ministry of Defence, an average of 900 to 1,500 Russians were killed or wounded daily in Ukraine throughout 2025. Dima elaborated on the operational method of these storms: “You send three guys, then another three. It didn’t work out, send 10. It didn’t work out with 10, send 50.” He continued, “Eventually you will break through. That’s the logic of the military. We had 200 dead in three days. On our regiment’s first meat storm they broke us, our regiment was destroyed in just three days.” Dima then presented a video, uploaded to social media in October 2023, showing mothers and wives of men killed in his unit speaking out against the immense losses. One woman stated, “Our men were ordered to advance armed with only machine guns and shovels.” Another commented, “There are terrible losses. Our men are being slaughtered.”
Those who survive “meat storms” without being killed often face severe and dehumanizing repercussions, according to Ilya. He shared a video on Telegram from his unit in Panteleimonivka, Donetsk. In the footage, a man says, “Let’s feed the animals,” before lifting a lid to reveal three men crouching in a pit. The person filming asks, “Oh, are you hungry? You want to be fed?” as one of the men nods and holds out his hands to receive dry grains poured into the pit. “Look how it’s eating,” the cameraman remarks as the man eats.
Some individuals would be subjected to prolonged periods of starvation and electrocution before being sent into “meat storms” unarmed, Ilya reported. He himself experienced torture after refusing to participate in one such assault. “They tied me to a tree, hit me with a baton a couple of times and put a gun to my head,” he recounted. “I don’t know how to put it, they went to the toilet on me. The commander told everyone ‘We’ve got a new toilet’. I was tied up for half a day.” Following his release, Ilya attempted suicide.
Denis, who claims he once secretly provided food and water to soldiers in a pit, showed the documentary team a video depicting an accused deserter being urinated on. The BBC has not been able to independently verify this footage. “It’s a humiliation of a person’s honor and dignity. In the Russian army this has become the norm,” Denis stated. “It’s illegal but no-one is punished for it. On the contrary, guys are even encouraged to do it.”
Denis, aged 27, also presented a photograph he stated was taken shortly after two of his front teeth were knocked out by a superior. This assault occurred because he had informed his commander that he did not wish to search for a missing drone. “It’s terrible, I just had to carry on.”
Resistance and Torture
Dima was eventually promoted, despite his stated reluctance to become an officer. He shared a photograph from his commissioning ceremony. After his promotion, he claimed he refused to send his own men into “meat storms.” “I refused to do it. I wouldn’t have to go forward myself, but I couldn’t just give them the order.” This refusal led to his arrest by military police and detention in Zaitsevo, a makeshift prison. “[There] they are torturing me with electric shock,” he recalled, noting that the intensity of the initial shock caused him to defecate. He endured torture daily for 72 days. “Just torture only, every day with stone face. No emotions, it’s crazy,” he stated, referring to his tormentors.
All the men interviewed are now outside of Russia but continue to grapple with the psychological scars from their experiences on the front lines in Ukraine. “I have dreams. I see [a] forest full of dead bodies, just smashed people with faces, dirty white mouths full of blood. The smell… it doesn’t smell, it tastes,” Dima confessed. “I’m a criminal, and nobody cares – my crime is just I don’t want to kill,” he added. “In Russian army, too many guys who don’t need this war, who hate commanders, who hate Putin, who hate our system, and they need to break us.” Ilya expressed his love for his country, stating, “but not what Putin has done to it.” He concluded, “They can break anyone there, it doesn’t matter if you’re strong or not. They almost broke me, but not completely.”