37-year-old Khabarovsk resident Vladimir Oskolkov, who signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in June, accused his commanders of extorting money, sending troops on knowingly deadly missions, and refusing to evacuate the wounded. He relayed these claims to his sister Anastasia in videos that, according to the report, are in the possession of the outlet Vetor.
According to Oskolkov, on August 7 his 23-man platoon came under fire in the self-proclaimed “DPR.” Almost all were killed; besides him, only three wounded soldiers survived. He said the wounded were not evacuated and the dead were left where they fell. He also alleged that commanders threatened to kill anyone who refused to advance and sent soldiers under drones, mortar fire, and across mined fields.
“The commanders sit in dugouts and just send orders. If you refuse to go, they’ll kill you,” Oskolkov told his sister, describing what he says happened at the front.
After leaving the positions, he reportedly reached Berdiansk and gave testimony against his superiors. Oskolkov said the extortion had started earlier at the Novoazovsky training ground: soldiers were charged 20,000 rubles for a trip to Mariupol to arrange a bank card, 10,000 for a shopping trip, 110,000 for a body armor set, plus additional payments for radios and a generator. He also told an investigator that he handed 570,000 rubles in cash to Senior Lieutenant Petrov inside a VTB bank branch, and later another 300,000 for a promise to remove his absent-without-leave status.
Yet on August 24 the family was told that Oskolkov was officially listed as AWOL. On September 20, Anastasia says, he was taken away by men identifying themselves as officers from the 123rd military investigative department in Mariupol. On September 23 he managed to send her a WhatsApp message asking her to write “anywhere you can,” before it cut off. On September 26 she was told he was being held near Berdiansk at a collection point for servicemen accused of leaving their unit without permission.
Anastasia also says her brother never received the promised contract-signing payment and that his salary had been paid under someone else’s service tag. The article cites other soldiers and rights defender Alexander Kim describing systemic extortion, paid leave, beatings, and threats in the military. It adds that Verstka had previously reported on an informal ban on military prosecutors investigating complaints against frontline commanders.