Russian soldiers have revealed the brutality of their commanders, describing executions of their own men, 'meat storm' missions and horrific torture methods as punishment for fleeing the front line.
Speaking in a BBC documentary called The Zero Line: Inside Russia's War, several soldiers recounted how they saw fellow troops killed on the spot for refusing orders.
One ex-soldier named Dima said he saw the bodies of 20 men lying in a pit after being shot, also known as being 'zeroed' in military slang for executing ones own troops.
Others described men being starved, electrocuted, urinated on and then sent into 'meat storm' battle missions unarmed.
One former soldier, Ilya, who previously worked as a teacher for children with special needs, was called up to service in May 2024.
After his arrival in Ukraine alongside 78 others, most men were directly sent to the frontline, while he ended up at a command post.
During his time there, he said he witnessed four people executed by a commander after they fled the front line.
He said: 'The saddest thing is that I knew them. I remember one of them screaming 'Don't shoot, I'll do anything!' but he [the commander] zeroed them anyway.'
34-year-old Dima worked as a paramedic where he was part of a brigade which evacuated wounded soldiers from the front line.
He described witnessing his commander - Alexei Ksenofontov - executing fellow troops, calling him a 'butcher.'
Of the 20 men in the pit, Dima said they were ex-convicts who had arrived at the base the previous night.
'Twenty lads were brought to us. They just took their bank cards and killed them,' he said.
'It's not a problem to write off someone. You just make up a report.'
The men in the documentary spoke in detail about the 'meat storm' missions men were forced to partake in, which are so deadly they are likened to suicide missions.
Speaking in the film, former soldier Denis, 27, said: '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.'
He explained that commanders would start out by sending three men, and when that didn't work they would send up to 50 people.
He said: '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.'
Men who refuse to participate or who flee face horrific torture and abuse from their commanders, which is then filmed and put on social media.
Ilya showed one Telegram video of emaciated men crouching in a dark pit after being starved and beaten for refusing orders.
A man in the video is heard saying: 'Are you hungry? Let's feed the animals,' and 'Do you want a cookie' as one soldier begs and pleads before some scraps of food are thrown into the pit.
Ilya said he was personally tortured, recounting how he was tied to a tree, urinated on and beaten, before a gun was put to his head.
'The commander told everyone 'We've got a new toilet'. I was tied up for half a day,' he said.
The former soldier said he attempted to take his own life after the ordeal ended.
Denis said humiliation and torture has 'become the norm' in the Russian Army.
'It's illegal but no one is punished for it. On the contrary, guys are even encouraged to do it,' he said.
The 27-year-old showed a photo taken after he was abused by commanders for refusing to search for a missing drone.
Two of his front teeth were knocked out. He said: 'It's terrible, I just had to carry on.'
He was eventually promoted, but after refusing to send his men on meat storms he was arrested by military police and tortured.
Dima said he was tortured for 72 days with electric shocks, which made him defecate himself.
Speaking about nightmares he has experienced ever since, Dima said: '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.'
'I'm a criminal, and nobody cares - my crime is just I don't want to kill.'
Putin's army is now a penal colony controlled by terror and executions: DAVID PATRIKARAKOS
These testimonies come as more and more disturbing footage is being spread online, showing Russian superiors torturing their soldiers.
In a video last month, one fighter was seen taped upside down to a tree in the biting cold near the frontline.
Another - also tethered to a tree - was forced to eat snow by his superior officer.
The frightened and shaking men wore only underwear after being stripped of their winter uniforms.
Their commander is heard barking: '[They] wanted to off from their positions, not follow orders.'
Forcing snow into the mouth of the refusenik, the raging officer says: 'Eat, you ing *.'
In other videos that have surfaced men are beaten with rifle butts for retreating, denied food and endlessly threatened with execution.
In one case, a deserter is forced to dig his own grave before being 'reprieved' and sent back to the line in a cruel form of psychological torture.
In another, a unit commander shoots over the heads of his own men to drive them out of a trench and into oncoming enemy fire.
In units around Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, soldiers who refused to advance have been chained to poles and radiators, or thrown into open pits in the ground and left for days without food in the snow.
Some were kept under the observation of drones – a menacing presence hovering above, just waiting for the soldier to try to flee, at which point he would likely be killed.