A Russian father has recounted the horrifying moment his son was “beaten over the head with a pistol” after refusing to fight in Ukraine. In an interview with the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, an elderly Russian man, who used the nickname “Sergei” to protect his anonymity, told of how he made several trips to the frontlines in Ukraine to retrieve his son, who had been detained and was, for all intents and purposes, missing in action. His son, who went by the nickname “Stas”, was already an army officer when he was called up to fight at the beginning of the war, and though he had declined his father’s advice to stay home, eventually changed his mind about fighting after he was instructed to engage in a battle without any cover or realistic prospect of survival. 

Sergei recalled: “So off he went to Ukraine. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.”

“Stas said the [Russian] soldiers had been given no cover; there was no intelligence gathering; no preparation. They’d been ordered to advance, but no one knew what lay ahead.

“But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. I told him: ‘Better to take it. This is not our war. It’s not a war of liberation.’ 

“He said he would put his refusal in writing. He and several others who’d decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.”

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Sergei added that after his son’s refusal, the Russian soldiers threatened to kill Stas if he did not change his mind. 

Sergei said: “They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. 

“He refused. So, they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. He told me his face was covered in blood.

“Then they took him into a room and told him: ‘You’re coming with us, otherwise we’ll kill you.’ But then someone said they’d take my son to work in the storeroom.”

Despite the viciousness of the abuse, Sergei’s relentless attempts to retrieve his son proved fruitful and Stas was sent back to Russia. It was only then that the extent of his treatment was revealed. 

But reports of Russian soldiers returning from the frontlines having decided against continuing to fight are rare, and it is likely that the majority of those that do are either killed or not heard from. 

Another Russian parent that Mr Rosenberg spoke to related how her son was now missing in action after refusing to fight. 

Oxana spoke of how one day she received a text message saying her son, Andrei, a Russian lieutenant deployed to Ukraine in July, had “been put in a basement”.

Andrei had managed to contact his mother to tell her he had stopped fighting. Oxana said: “He told me he had refused to lead his men to a certain death. 

“As an officer he understood that if they went ahead, they wouldn’t get out alive. For that they sent my son to a detention centre. 

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“Then I got a text message saying he and four other officers had been put in a basement. They haven’t been seen for five months.

“Later I was told that the building they were in had been shelled and that all five men were missing. They said no remains had been found. Their official status is missing in action. It doesn’t make sense. It’s absurd. The way my son was treated wasn’t only illegal, it was inhuman.”

Despite the allegations, Vladimir Putin has insisted that there are no “camps or incarceration facilities” used to detain soldiers refusing to fight. 

He accused the reports of being “nonsense and fake claims” and that there was “nothing to back them up with”. 

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