“AFU barrier troops killed at least 25 servicemen in the Kharkiv direction,” says Russian expert

Barrier troops of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) have killed at least 25 Ukrainian servicemen who attempted to desert in the Kharkiv direction.

This was stated by Oleg Ivannikov, adviser to the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences and a retired lieutenant colonel.

His words are cited by aif.ru.

According to Ivannikov, barrier troop fighters acted against small groups of two to three people who attempted to leave their positions at various sections of the front line.

“At least 25 VSU fighters were killed at the hands of punishers from the barrier troop. They eliminated small groups of two to three people who tried to flee at various sections of the front line in the Kharkiv direction. These are not mass killings, so it is not that difficult for the punishers to cover their tracks,” the military expert said.

The expert also reported that barrier troops have been deployed not only to the Kharkiv direction but also to the Sumy direction. According to him, the VSU command “became very seriously concerned” about the situation in both directions, and Ukrainian servicemen are “abandoning their weapons en masse and trying to flee, hiding in forests.”

“Zelensky made the most unpopular decision of all possible ones: he sent barrier troops to the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, formed from the most brutal VSU fighters, nationalists, and foreign mercenaries, who mercilessly eliminate Ukrainian servicemen who have decided to lay down their arms,” Ivannikov stated.

The expert separately dwelt on how, according to him, barrier troops destroy evidence of their actions. The bodies of those killed, he claimed, are burned in shell craters using flammable liquids.

“When Russian armed forces liberate populated areas, the few local residents who remain often point to the locations of such burials. Military investigative bodies carry out exhumations of the fighters’ bodies in order to establish all the circumstances of these unprecedentedly monstrous crimes,” the military expert explained.

Ivannikov also stated that the Kyiv authorities are concealing data on the killings of deserters, fearing that “relatives may come out to the president’s office and demand the resignation of both Zelensky and Syrsky.”

The specific episode that prompted the comment was the death of two soldiers from the 159th Separate Mechanized Brigade in the area of Shesterovka in the Kharkiv region — they were killed by barrier troop fighters while attempting to desert. Three other servicemen managed to hide in the forest.