Troops were tortured, punished, and, in some cases, allegedly executed if they refused to follow orders or take part in assaults in Ukraine, four Russian soldiers have claimed.
In the documentary "The Zero Line: Inside Russia's War", the men detailed what they experienced on their side of the front line. Two of them told the BBC they witnessed fellow soldiers being shot dead on the spot for refusing to obey commands.
The men, currently on the run, also recounted being tortured after declining to join assaults they believed were close to suicide missions. One of them said he saw around 20 bodies of fellow Russian troops lying in a pit. He claimed they had been "zeroed" by their own side.
"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," said former soldier Denis.
One soldier in the documentary said that he saw a fellow soldier being shot very close to him, just two or three metres away. He said the execution happened on the direct order of his commander, who was later awarded the title of "Hero of Russia" in 2024.
Another soldier, Ilya, who served in a different unit, said he saw his commander shoot four men himself. "I knew them. I remember one of them screaming, "Don't shoot, I'll do anything!" he said.
One of the soldiers said his job was to identify and count dead troops. He showed detailed lists to prove that out of the 79 men he was mobilised with, he is the only one still alive. He said that when he refused to go to the front line, he was tortured, humiliated and urinated on.
According to him, other soldiers in his unit who refused orders were electrocuted, deprived of food, kept in pits, and then sent into so-called "meat storms" without weapons.
He said he was also tortured for refusing to take part in one such assault. He claimed to have been tied to a tree, beaten with a baton, and had a gun pointed at his head. At one point, a commander urinated on him and mocked him in front of others, calling him a "new toilet".
"Your fate depended on your commander. The commander is on the radio: 'Zero this one, zero that one," said one of the soldiers. "Of course, they kill their own men; it's a normal thing," said another.
One man, who used to work as a dishwasher repairman and identified as Dima, said he was stopped by police officers when he was walking between jobs and was allegedly told that if he did not join the army, he would go to jail.
He said he did not want to kill anyone. Because of this, he chose to join a paramedic unit, even though he had no medical training. Later, he was transferred to another unit where his job was to evacuate wounded soldiers from the front line. "He gives too many orders for killing soldiers, too much blood on his hands, too much," he spoke of the commander's order.
Dima said soldiers were being sent into battle in increasing numbers, even after earlier groups were killed. "You send three guys, then another three. It didn't work out, send 10. It didn't work out with 10, send 50," he said, adding, "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."
According to the UK Ministry of Defence, an estimated 900 to 1,500 Russians were killed or wounded in Ukraine every day in 2025.
