Special forces fighter from Krasnodar demoted after refusing to participate in special military operation

Vitaly Mozgalin from the Krasnodar Territory, a fighter of a special forces battalion of the Chief Intelligence Agency (known as GRU), who refused to participate in the special military operation in Ukraine, was demoted from a corporal.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 25, Police Captain Farid Chitav, the platoon commander of the OMON (riot police) squadron of the “Rosgvardiya” (National Guard of Russia), and eleven fighters from his squadron, who had been in Crimea on military exercises since February 6, refused to obey their commander’s order to cross the border between Russia and Ukraine. The fighters were returned to Krasnodar and dismissed from the “Rosgvardiya”. The fighters considered their dismissal illegal and filed a lawsuit for their reinstatement. On March 29, Farid Chitav and eight other fighters abandoned the lawsuit, and only three fighters supported the lawsuit. However, the court refused to reinstate the fighters in the service.

Vitaly Mozgalin tried to challenge the decision of the military unit commanders in the Krasnodar Garrison and Southern District Military Courts, but his lawsuit was not granted, the “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports.

The contractor refused to perform “service-combat tasks,” citing fears for the future of his family members and elderly relatives in case of his possible death. Vitaly Mozgalin also explained his refusal by health problems and severe psychological condition.

The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that in March, 300 soldiers from Buynaksk left Ukraine without permission, and they were met in Dagestan as deserters. Commanders of the military unit put a mark of unreliability on the military tickets of the fighters who refused to take part in the special military operation in Ukraine.

Let us remind you that in June, a court in Chechnya sentenced Ali Musaev, a contract soldier from the military commandant’s office, to 10 days of arrest for his refusal to leave for “the area where special tasks were to be carried out."”

*Included in the register of the media acting as foreign agents.