The Russian army has imprisoned its own deserters in pits with metal grills on top and a medieval aesthetic.
Several males are seen abandoned in confined holes buried beneath the ground in video uploaded on the Telegram channel Layouts.
They allege that Vladimir Putin‘s men threw them in there before depriving them of food and water because they chose not to fight in Ukraine or because they were heavily intoxicated.
Additionally, these holes resemble the rooms where torture victims were held in a Russian prison camp in Chechnya in 2000.
Flarit Baitemirov was one of the soldiers locked in a three-metre deep put called a ‘zindan’, according to the post on the messaging app.
‘I am being held captive by my own. I am Russian, I came as a volunteer,’ the 35-year-old said.
‘I am asking for help from the Ministry of Defence. Some kind of criminal case has been initiated against me. They have kept me here for the third week already.’
According to the soldier, he has been in a three-metre-deep pit since March 23.
In one of the videos, he says that he was placed in the pit for drinking alcohol with colleagues, and before that he was beaten and his collarbone was injured.
Baitemirov also speaks about rampant corruption in the regiment and the theft of humanitarian aid.
Another one shows rainwater dripping inside a stone hole where a Russian soldier sleeps.
His left eye socket looks badly bruised, and his lip swollen. He shows the dungeon like conditions, and his bed made out of a wooden pallet and nylon.
All his belongings look drenched with water, and he himself only has a rain jacket to protect himself with.
Since the first months of the invasion, Russian soldiers have been complaining about horror conditions and ‘torture’ pits.
But it is yet unclear where these pits are located, and how many men are being held there.