Serbian Militants Fighting On Russian Federation's Side Close To Revolt

The command treats them "like cattle".

Serbian sniper Dejan Beric, who recruits Serbs into the Russian army, complained about the command of the 119th Parachute and Airborne Regiment, where foreign mercenaries serve. He said this in an appeal that he published on social networks. The BBC drew attention to the record.

The recruited Serbs are fighting in the "Wolf" unit, which is part of the Ryazan 119th Airborne Regiment, Beric said. He said the regiment's command treats the Serbian mercenaries "like cattle," calling them "gypsies" and asking why they came to fight in Ukraine.

Beric claims that the command did not allow the sick Serbs to be treated and did not provide them with military hardware and weapons. Thus, at the end of December 2023, the command of the 119th regiment ordered the mercenaries to storm the positions of the AFU, giving them each "two or three magazines" for automatic rifles. In response to demands for more weapons, the commander, according to Beric, stated that the Serbs would capture the rest of the weapons in battle.

The Serb mercenaries then refused to fight as part of the regiment, demanding their transfer to another unit. After that, the Serbs, including those who had fallen ill, were declared war criminals, driven out of their dugouts into the cold, and kept outside for several days without food or water. According to Beric, they also tried to force the mercenaries to take part in the assault by threats of beatings, shootings and imprisonment.

In the morning of January 8, representatives of the military police came to the Serbs and offered them to sign papers that they recognise themselves as spies.

"This morning the military police came to them, went into the dugout, they were shooting in the air, beating the fighters with rifle butts, some had their heads smashed. <...> I am afraid for the lives of these people. The command of the 119th regiment is an OCG," the recruiter said, accusing the regiment's commanders of working against the Russian army. He also published several videos of mercenaries asking to be transferred to another unit.

Beric said he had appealed to the military prosecutor's office in Donetsk and the administration of the head of Chechnya in order to move the Serbs to the Akhmat unit, but "someone from the 119th regiment doesn't want it to end amicably."

The Serbian recruiter hopes that information about the mercenaries' situation will become known to Putin and the country's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. He also admitted that after the publication of the videos he could be prosecuted under the article on "discrediting" the army.