A sickening clip has shown two wounded Russian soldiers being brutally beaten with clubs – apparently for refusing to risk their lives in so-called “”.
The phrase refers to the practice of sending waves of poorly armed and minimally trained troops into heavily defended Ukrainian positions to exhaust the defenders and identify weak points.
And, posting on X, Anton Geraschenko, a former adviser to the Interior Ministry, shared a clip in which soldiers cower under a rain of heavy blows, claiming they were being “punished for their refusal to go into ‘meat assaults’”.
Mr Geraschenko added: “The video was reportedly filmed in Kyzyl (Tyva republic of ) and shows soldiers of the 55th motor rifle brigade being abused.
“It is reported that a military policeman, callsign ‘Mad’, beats up two soldiers who refused to take part in suicide assaults after they were wounded from previous combat work. One of them can no longer walk.
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One man carries a walking stick, while another cowers in fear moments before being attacked (Image: NC)
“This is not the first video of such treatment for Russian soldiers that appears online. So that is probably more of a systemic tactics in the Russian army.”
In the clip, which Express.co.uk has opted not to share in full, at least one of the victims is carrying what appears to be a walking stick.
Meat assaults have been characterised by their high casualty rates, with soldiers often used as cannon fodder in a manner reminiscent of the worst attritional battles of the First World War.
While this approach has occasionally yielded limited territorial gains, it has come at the cost of significant human losses.
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One of the injured man appears to have difficulty standing (Image: Russia)
Another man seconds before being attacked (Image: NC)
Since the start of its invasion of in February 2022, has made extensive efforts to bolster the ranks of its armed forces, employing a variety of controversial and often desperate measures.
The most prominent of these was the partial mobilisation announced by President in September 2022, which sought to call up 300,000 reservists. This marked ’s first mobilisation since the Second World War and led to widespread unrest, with reports of chaotic organisation, insufficient training, and inadequate equipment for the recruits.
Many Russian men fled the country to avoid conscription, highlighting the unpopularity of the campaign among parts of the population.
In addition to mobilisation, has turned to its penal system to bolster its fighting forces. The Wagner Group, a private military company with close ties to the Kremlin, played a leading role in recruiting convicts from Russian prisons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Image: Getty)
These individuals were promised reduced sentences and financial incentives in exchange for frontline service.
Estimates of Russian casualties since the start of Putin’s war on vary widely, but Western intelligence suggests that over 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the conflict began.
The reliance on massed infantry assaults, coupled with heavy losses among professional soldiers in the early stages of the war, has placed immense strain on ‘s ability to sustain its military campaign.
Despite these efforts to replenish its ranks, the Kremlin faces mounting challenges in maintaining morale, ensuring adequate training, and equipping its forces to meet the demands of a prolonged and costly conflict.