Russian soldiers are being thrown into holes in the ground as punishment for refusing to obey orders

Russian commanders are understood to be imprisoning their own troops in grilled holes underground as the struggling invasion resorts to extreme methods of discipline in Ukraine.

Amid reports of drunkenness, soldiers are said to have been thrown in what has been called ‘Zindans’ – holes in the ground covered up with metal grilles.

It is a stark shift in policy from the ‘relatively light touch’ which military commanders used in the early days of the war, even allowing dissenting troops to quietly go home if they wished.

The UK Ministry of Defence stated online: ‘In recent months, Russian commanders have likely started punishing breaches in discipline by detaining the offending troops in ‘Zindans’ which are improvised cells consisting of holes in the ground covered with a metal grille.

‘Multiple recent reports from Russian personnel give similar accounts of being placed in Zindans for misdemeanours including drunkenness and attempting to terminate their contracts.

‘In the early months of the war, many Russian commanders took a relatively light touch in enforcing discipline, allowing those who refused to soldier to quietly return home.

‘Since Autumn 2022, there have been multiple increasingly draconian initiatives to improve discipline in the force, especially since Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov assumed command of the operation in January 2023.’

On Friday, Russia boasted its missile strikes were ‘right on target’ in a sickening Telegram post made just hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed a barrage of rockets on Ukrainian homes.

More than 20 cruise missiles and two drones were fired at cities and towns across Ukraine that were miles away from the front lines, killing at least 23 civilians including a mother and her two-year-old daughter as they slept inside their homes.

Families were blown to pieces, with many victims buried amongst the rubble of their homes, as Russia’s missiles thundered through the air and smashed into residential buildings. 

Five hours after the first rocket struck the town of Uman and wreaked havoc there, Russia’s Defence Ministry posted a sinister message that read ‘right on target’ alongside a photograph of a rocket being launched.

The ministry later insisted that its strategic bombers had conducted ‘high-precision’ attacks on Ukrainian army reserve units overnight to prevent them from getting to the frontline.

But the screams of those who watched their relatives and neighbours blown to pieces and the distraught firefighters picking their way through the rubble show the reality of Putin’s missile blitz.

The missiles began raining down on the central city of Dnipro at 4am this morning, with one striking a house where Olga Bilash, 31, and her two-year-old daughter were sleeping, killing them both. Four others were wounded.

Harrowing photographs show their destroyed home, where an entire wall is reduced to rubble. Inside, the remaining walls are blackened from the blast and rubble covers the toddler’s highchair.

Olga’s cousin Tetyana Bilash, 21, said: ‘I want all Russians to rot and die, I want for this country to never exist. I hate them. My world is ruined and empty.’

In the central town of Uman, families were woken by the sound of explosions tearing through their homes. At least two cruise missiles smashed into a nine-storey building, killing at least 17 people including two 10-year-old children and wounding 17 others.

In a haunting scene, survivors, stricken with grief, broke down in tears and grasped at each other for some form of comfort as they watched their neighbours being carried away from the rubble in body bags.

Hours after the strike, firefighters were still clambering their way through the debris in the hope of finding survivors trapped under the rubble.

Kyiv was also rocked by explosions in the first attack on the capital in nearly two months, with air raid sirens beginning at 4am. Ukraine’s air force managed to intercept 11 cruise missiles and two drones launched at the city.

Explosions were also reported after midnight in Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine as well as in Mykolaiv in the south.

The bombardment was nowhere near the war’s sprawling front lines or active combat zones in eastern Ukraine, where a grinding war of attrition has taken hold. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.

Survivors of the Uman strikes recounted terrifying moments as the missiles hit when it still was dark outside.

Halyna, a building resident, said she and her husband were covered in glass by the blast. They saw flames outside their window and scrambled out, but first Halyna checked whether her friend in a neighboring apartment was OK.

‘I was calling, calling her (on the phone), but she didn’t pick up. I even rang the doorbell, but still no answer,’ she told The Associated Press. She used the spare keys from her friend’s apartment and went inside to check on her. She found her lying dead on her apartment floor.

Halyna refused to provide her last name out of security concerns.

Another resident Serhii Lubivskyi said he was woken at 4.30 am by the explosion. He ran to the front door but couldn’t open it. His bathroom and kitchen were in tatters, dishes and doors smashed.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk