Russia's Wagner Group Uses Smartphones To Find Its Troops In Ukraine's War Field, Executed If Not Comply With Orders

Illustration of the Wagner Group mercenaries. (Source: ssu.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Russian troops in Ukraine have been given a smartphone to allow commanders to track their positions on the Ukrainian battlefield, with the threat of execution if they escape, British intelligence officials said.

This brutal act is designed to keep officers safe "at the expense of" recruits deemed "can be thrown away", the British Ministry of Defense said.

At least 10 soldiers who have been recruited into the well-known Russian military contractor the Wagner Group has been shot for failing to comply with orders on the front lines or due to desertion.

Inviolence forces, mostly taken from Russian prisons, have been given smartphones or tablets in "new offensive tactics to take advantage of the large number of undertrained inmates who have been recruited," the ministry said in its intelligence briefing tweet.

The Wagner Group commander then used a commercial satellite to ensure its troops followed the planned attack line to the destination of the attack.

"At the platoon level upwards, the commander likely remained sheltered and gave orders via radio, informed via video feeds from a small unmanned aerial vehicle," the ministry said, launching The National News December 19.

Infantry forces are "ordered to continue the pre-planned route", usually with the support of artillery fire and sometimes next to armored vehicles.

However, if any Russian soldiers try to escape the battlefield or get off the planned route, they will face severe punishment.

"Prisoners who deviate from their attacking routes without permission are most likely threatened with brief executions," the tweet said.

"This brutal act aims to preserve Wagner's rare assets from experienced commanders and armored vehicles, at the expense of more easily available recruitment of prisoners, which organizations think can be thrown away."

This grim policy is mostly used around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which Russian commanders desperately want to seize despite suffering significant losses.

A former commander of the Wagner Group, who managed to escape, said he was aware of the executions of 10 mercenaries who refused to go to war, eight of whom were ex-convicts.

Andrei Medvedev told The Insider, Russia's opposition news outlet, that he had a video of two executions. He is also a former commander convicted of murder Yevgeny Nuzhin, an Wagner defector who was killed outside the law with a hammer in executions filmed last month.

Under its ultranationalist financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was once President Vladimir Putin's cook, Wagner has taken a much bigger role in Ukraine's war, but has claimed many casualties.

The group, known for its operations in Syria, has grown significantly to around 8,000 troops since the February invasion and has its own internal security unit to carry out the execution.

"Reports on systematic executions in Wagner's troops emerged, showing that Wagner's leadership is willing to work hard to maintain the image of the Wagner Group as a very disciplined force," the think tank Institute for the Study of War reported.

"Such reports also suggest that Wagner Group forces are struggling with moral and disciplinary issues among new members, similar to Russia's conventional forces, but fighting them with harsh penalties," the agency said.

Instead, the Russian main army announced last week that it would boost morale with the formation of two "frontline creative brigades" consisting of opera singers, actors, and circuses, which are thought to include▁penyebabnyans.