(Sputnik/Sergei Fadeichev/Pool via REUTERS, via third party)
The Russian Ministry of Defense is transferring some mobilized Russian troops out of Donetsk in Ukraine after they reported that the militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic beat them earlier this month, according to Vladislav Khovalyg, the governor of Tuva.
The Russian troops, who were trained in the Novosibirsk region of Russia, began fighting at the front in Ukraine in December, according to Novaya Gazeta. But come February, the militia in the DPR began beating them, troops said in a video message shared with Russian news outlets and posted to Telegram.
“On February 4, the military from the DPR arrived. They fired at us with machine guns,” said the Russian troops, who came from Tuva, a region in southern Siberia. “The military police came and beat us.”