Russian Commander Threatens Drunken Troops With Death

In a recently released video, a Russian commander in Ukraine can be seen physically and verbally abusing troops he accuses of being drunk while engaging in combat.

The commander also says that the men are "dead anyway" in what could be interpreted as a threat to their lives amid the 17-month-old war with Ukraine.

WarTranslated, an independent media project that translates materials about the war into English, shared the video—which could not be independently verified by Newsweek—on Twitter on Saturday. According to WarTranslated, the senior Russian fighter is complaining about subordinates from Chuvashia, a republic in eastern Russia.

The commander begins the clip by speaking to the camera and saying he's in charge of Russia's 2nd Battalion with the call sign "Zima" but does not disclose his location. He then accuses two troops from Chuvashia of fighting while under the influence of alcohol.

As the commander speaks, he's holding a soldier by his uniform collar. The soldier has a large bandage on his head and appears unsteady on his feet.

"This is the first guy, who...tie him up...," the commander says.

He walks over to another troop who is standing nearby and flips off the man's hat.

"This is the second...guy," he said while pulling the soldier over by his collar.

The second troop can be seen holding a cloth to his nose as he's called a homophobic epithet by the commander.

"These are your Chuvash devils," the commander says. "I'm Zima. People know me. If anyone has anything to tell me, go on. If you touch my family, I'll tear your faces."

He continued, "But these...are dead. I keep my word."

The video ends with the commander slapping the second solider hard across the face.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Ministry of Defense by email for comment.

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported in an intelligence update that increased use of alcohol by Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops in Ukraine had become an issue for the military.

On April 2, the MoD said a Russian Telegram news channel had recently covered how "there have been 'extremely high' numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces."

"Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness," the ministry said. "However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations."