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Nikita Chibrin enlisted in the Russian army in the summer of 2021. It was not a feeling of patriotism or a desire to defend the country that led him to join the Russian forces, but rather financial difficulties. He was far from imagining that, in less than a year, a war would break out.
On February 24, 27-year-old Chibrin was crossing the Ukrainian border from Belarus with no idea that he was being sent to fight on Ukrainian soil. “We were all fooled”he recalls months later in an interview with The Guardian, from the immigration center of the Madrid airport, where he requested political asylum.
The young man, who belonged to the 64 brigade of the Russian army, spent the first months in the village of Lypivka, near kyiv. His unit, decorated by President Vladimir Putin himself, is accused of committing war crimes in Bucha and Andriivka, two nearby towns.
“Heroism, resilience and courage”: Vladimir Putin honors a brigade accused of committing a massacre in Bucha
From the first days of the war, Chibrin expressed his discontent directly to his commanders, who demoted him as an army mechanic. “They threatened to arrest me, but in the end my superiors decided to use me for cleaning and loading jobs. They took me away from the battlefield, ”he explains. He wasn’t the only one unhappy with the situation. The Guardian revealed that military morale was “extremely low” and many were looking for ways to escape, but the risk was high: “Our commanders threatened to shoot us if we deserted”????????
He spent four months in Ukraine but denies having witnessed or been involved in the war crimes committed by his brigade. He even claims that he never picked up a weapon, admitting, however, that “rumors” were circulating about soldiers being involved in the death of civilians and sexual violence. He deserted in June -hiding in a van that was going to be supplied from Russia- and now he wants to testify in an international court about what he saw in Ukraine: “I have nothing to hide”, he guarantees.
This is a criminal war that Russia started. I want to do everything possible to reach the end.”
Chibrin is the second Russian soldier to testify publicly about his experience in Ukraine. In August, paratrooper Pavel Filatyev published a detailed 141-page diary reporting his time in the army, assuming he saw neither “justice” nor “truth” in the Ukrainian war.
“I don’t see justice. I don’t see the truth”: Russian soldier demonstrates against the war in Ukraine
Like Filatyev, Chibrin managed to leave Russia with the help of the human rights organization Gulagu.net. He now hopes to obtain political asylum in Spain, where he will remain temporarily in a refugee center.
Source: Observadora
