Russian soldiers tell BBC they saw fellow troops executed on commanders’ orders

(Ben Steele, Mike Radfordand, George Wright – BBC) Four Russian soldiers have exposed the horror and brutality of conditions on their side of the front lines in Ukraine, with two men telling the BBC they saw soldiers being executed on the spot for refusing orders. One man told a documentary team he saw a soldier executed on the order of his commander, who was made a “Hero of Russia” in 2024. “I see it – just two metres, three metres… click, clack, bang,” he said. Another soldier, from a different unit, says he saw his commander shoot four men himself. “I knew them,” he says of the soldiers executed. “I remember one of them screaming ‘Don’t shoot, I’ll do anything!'”. One of them also says he saw 20 bodies of fellow soldiers lying in a pit after being “zeroed” by comrades. The term “zero” is Russian military slang for executing your own. In the documentary, The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War, men give detailed accounts about how they were tortured for refusing to take part in assaults they describe as verging on suicide missions. Russian troops call these attacks “meat storms” as waves of men are sent across the front line relentlessly to try and wear down Ukrainian forces. – Russia soldiers tell BBC they saw fellow troops in Ukraine war executed on commanders’ orders