Konstantin Yefremov was an officer in the Russian army for many years. However, after the Kremlin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, he said he had had enough. Yefremov says he tried several times to leave the army. In the end he was fired because he did not want to go back to Ukraine.
Yefremov has since fled Russia. In an interview with the BBC, he gives insight into what really happened in the war in Ukraine. This makes him the highest-ranking Russian to speak out about the war in the Western media. The BBC was able to verify through photos and documents that Yefremov was really in the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine. These are his main statements.
Torture and covert aid
Yefremov confirms that he witnessed Ukrainian prisoners being mistreated and tortured during interrogations. Such interrogations sometimes took up to a week, he says. “Every day, at night, sometimes twice a day.” In certain situations, Russian soldiers “lost their minds”.
For example, when an officer found out that a Ukrainian sniper was in front of him. He then pulled down his pants and asked if he was married, Yefremov said. “Then someone will bring me a mop,” the officer is said to have replied. “We will turn you into a girl and send the video to your wife.”
Yefremov also reports on other forms of violence. To get answers, prisoners were shot or had their teeth knocked out. Conditions were so precarious that some Russians secretly helped the Ukrainian prisoners. He secretly threw them straw at night so they didn’t have to sleep on the bare floor, or brought hot tea and cigarettes to warm themselves up.
During another interrogation, a prisoner was so badly injured that Yefremov feared he would bleed to death. He was therefore dressed in a Russian uniform, taken to the hospital and warned: “Do not say that you are a Ukrainian prisoner of war. Otherwise, the doctors will refuse to treat you, or the wounded Russian soldiers will hear you and shoot at you.”
Some hunt, some plunder
Yefremov’s report also provides an insight into Russian life in Ukraine away from the fighting. This makes it clear that the supply of the troops does not always run smoothly. Yefremov said his unit often had to sleep outside. In addition, some people barely had anything to eat. “We were so hungry that we went rabbit and pheasant hunting,” he recalls.
But not all Russian soldiers fare badly in Ukraine. Especially if they can help themselves empty the homes of Ukrainian refugees. “Soldiers and officers took everything they could,” says Yefremov, citing buckets, bicycles and lawnmowers as examples.
But he recalled one experience in particular: “Once we came across a villa with a Russian fighter in it. There was so much food, enough food to survive a nuclear war. But the soldiers caught the Japanese carp outside in the pond and ate them.”
The pressure from above
Yefremov was sent to Crimea on February 10, two weeks before the start of the war. He followed the order – without knowing what really awaited him. It was a “military exercise”, according to the statement at the time. “At that time, no one believed that there would be a war. I’m sure even senior officers didn’t know.”
Efremov claims to have been against the war in Ukraine from the start. When he tried to resign, he was described as a “traitor” and “coward”. He then got into a taxi to flee to Chechnya and officially hand in his resignation there. His comrades then called him and dissuaded him. He would be jailed for ten years, they told him. Moreover, the police had already been warned. “I now realize that I should have ignored that and kept driving,” he looks back. But the fear of prison made him return.
He was then fired at the end of May 2022 when he wanted to leave the army again. The BBC has documents showing that Yefremov was fired “for a serious breach of the regulations” and that he “evaded his duties”. “After 10 years of service, I was labeled a traitor just because I didn’t want to kill people,” he says now. “But I was happy to be a free person.”
(dab)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
