Russian Troops Beaten Up Upon Returning From Ukraine

Russian troops were beaten up upon their return home from the front lines in Ukraine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

On Monday, the committee said it was opening a criminal case against three people for “acts of hooliganism” after they attacked Russian servicemen on New Year’s Eve in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Local media reported that the people were Russian migrants.

The incident came as reports emerged that Russian authorities detained about 3,000 migrants in St. Petersburg on New Year’s Eve as part of a series of mass detentions across the country.

Beginning in August, reports emerged that migrant workers with Russian citizenship were being rounded up to fight in the war against Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law decrees that appear to entice migrants with Russian passports to serve in his military, and in the war in Ukraine. That includes a March 2023 decree that simplifies the process of obtaining Russian citizenship for foreign nationals who serve in his military while the war is going on in the neighboring country.

“A crowd of drunken migrants attacked two young men demobilized from the front line, one soldier was hit with a baton,” the investigative committee said in a post on Telegram.

“It is also noted that the migrants insulted the wives of veterans of the special military operation,” it added, using the term Putin employs to describe his invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday evening, the Chelyabinsk region police reported that three people who allegedly were “committing illegal acts against members of [Russia’s war in Ukraine]” were detained.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

The British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update on the war in Ukraine in September that Russia has been “exploiting foreign nationals” to boost its manpower in Ukraine in the face of mounting casualties.

Such a method is likely being used by Moscow as Putin wishes to avoid further unpopular domestic mobilization measures in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections, the ministry said.

Konstantin Sonin, a Russian-born political economist from the University of Chicago, previously told Newsweek that Putin is likely deterred from announcing an open mass mobilization because the propaganda narrative that he and his entourage are pushing is that Russia is not waging a war but is conducting a limited-scale military operation.

“This is what he is fed in the army and police reports, and this is the language that he speaks to his subordinates and the general public,” Sonin said, explaining that even if Putin does attempt to draft more men for the war, it will be accompanied by rhetoric claiming nothing new is happening. “Announcing a mobilization in the open will be a drastic departure from this worldview, almost like bursting from an informational bubble.”

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