The Russian Deserter and War Crimes: «This is how the Commanders sent us to the slaughter»
(by Federico Fubini) Alexander is a 25-year-old Russian career officer, a graduate of the Army Academy as a military engineer. He entered Ukraine at dawn on February 24, 2022. He stayed there for six months, risking his life several times, after which he became a deserter. Like thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Russian deserters (estimated to be between ten thousand and thirty thousand), Sasha fled to Kazakhstan — protected by the network of exiled dissidents “Point of No Return” — but he does not feel safe: the Moscow government has issued an international arrest warrant for him. For this reason he agrees to speak to Courier only anonymously. But what he tells is a window into the war crimes and crimes against humanity investigated by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It is a window, above all, into what Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil,” observed while being in the midst of it.
Sasha, how did your experience in Ukraine begin?
“I was sent to Crimea for military exercises. As a career officer I couldn’t refuse, although I tried.”
Did he realize immediately that there was an intention to unleash a total invasion?
“At first there were no obvious signs of an impending war, but around February 18 or 20 I started to think that something serious was about to happen. Our unit was receiving orders from above to prepare the vehicles for use in urban environments. It didn’t make sense in an exercise, because usually you’re on country roads, in open fields or in the forest. I worked in the communications unit and received all those signals on encrypted radio channels. That’s why I realized what was happening before many others.”
What did he think when he realized you were about to attack?
“I couldn’t believe it. I refused to believe it until February 24. Until Vladimir Putin’s announcement on television. But I noticed that we were getting more and more frequent visits from generals who were checking the materials, the vehicles, the equipment. We all thought that maybe it wasn’t really an exercise, but at most we wanted to show off a bit to Ukraine. That we would make a bit of a show at the border and then it would all be over, like other times. We all thought that. I didn’t believe it until the invasion began.”
What happened when you entered the territory controlled by Ukraine?
“At 5 a.m. on February 24, they gave us fuel, weapons, and material, and we began to prepare, forming long lines. At about 10 a.m., we set out. When I crossed, the Ukrainian unit at the border had already been annihilated, and we passed in silence, without firing a single shot.”
Read the full interview here
