Iryna Chevtayeva: Why Does the Russian Army’s Brutal Culture Go Unchecked?
“They killed my child,” Tatjana Bykova laments in a video message. She uses the term “annulled” to describe how her son, Andrej, was killed by Russian military commanders. She names them and says she hates them.
First, they blackmailed Andrej, demanding half of the compensation he received for an injury. When he refused to give them the money and bought a car instead, they demanded that he give them the car. He was killed for refusing to hand over the car.
Bykova filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the public prosecutor’s office, but nothing happened. Andrej Bykov was simply declared missing. “I was told that he was beaten to death. He is lying in a forest near Galizynovka [a village in the Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine – editor’s note],” Bykova told the independent Russian media outlet Verstka.
In October 2025, the investigative news website launched a project to highlight widespread torture and so-called “annulment” — a colloquial term for the murder of comrades in the Russian army.
Verstka also published the names of dozens of commanders involved. The next day, Aleksandr Paschtschenko, a deputy from the ruling United Russia party from Khakassia, located in southern Siberia, responded to criticism from an angry citizen by saying, “At the front, you would be annulled for such statements.” Inadvertently, this remark confirmed that “annulments” are a cultural norm.
Torture and murder happen within the ranks of the army
“The murder of comrades is only part of the bitter state of the Russian army. Torture is also widespread,” military expert Yuri Fyodorov told DW. Torture videos can be found on Telegram channels dedicated to the war. For example, according to the expert, soldiers are thrown into a pit and fed garbage for one or two weeks, depending on the commander’s mood. Or soldiers are forced to “hug a tree.” They are tied to tree trunks and left there for one or two days without food or drink.
A soldier can be shot and then declared missing or killed in action. Furthermore, it is up to officers to decide whether a soldier is deployed where the risk of death is particularly high.
The reasons for “annulment” vary widely — disobedience, disciplinary violations, alcohol consumption, arguments with officers, or refusal to hand over some earnings.
Military expert Jan Matveyev says the lack of structure among the military ‘encourages impunity’.
“If you view people as expendable and are capable of killing someone by sending them into a hopeless battle, then you will also kill because someone has committed a crime, failed to hand over money, or you have had a falling out,” said military expert Jan Matveyev.
Psychoanalyst Alina Putilovskaya speaks of people “acting out” or “passing on” aggressive emotions: “The superiors who commit these cruel acts of violence have superiors of their own who mock them — for example, by giving them unrealistic orders and withholding vital supplies from their units. These high-ranking officials project an image of superiority, invincibility and prosperity to the outside world. This sparks very difficult feelings among field commanders, which they take out on their subordinates.”
According to Putilovskaya, soldiers fear becoming the target of their superiors’ aggression. But they also feel pity and guilt towards comrades who are targeted because they cannot help them.
‘Annulment’ culture to instill discipline
Yuri Fyodorov attributes the culture of “annulments” in the army to corrupt officers as well as to criminal and undisciplined soldiers. He says that the officer corps in Russia has become more problematic since the 1990s. Since then many people have remained in the army simply because they could not find another job. They topped up their low pay through corrupt practices, like forcing soldiers to do unpaid work. Officers like these are currently fighting in Ukraine , he said.
Experts agree that the Russian army has also changed in the war in Ukraine because it now includes mercenaries who fight for money and convicted felons who have their own values.
“To keep this whole gang under control, you had to use the most brutal methods,” says Fyodorov. One of the first well-known examples of this was a video that was shared on social media in November 2022, showing Wagner Group mercenaries killing a comrade with a sledgehammer.
Why does abuse go unpunished?
According to Jan Matveev, the main reason for this violent culture is a lack of discipline and the absence of a properly structured military system.
“All of this encourages impunity, which makes leadership impossible. No one in the Russian army has been punished for serious war crimes such as the murders in Bucha and Mariupol. This immediately sent a signal that you could simply kill people without being punished,” says Matveyev. He is convinced that this abuse of power has undermined discipline in the army. He added that the army’s ongoing failure to clamp down on abuse, means that violence is intensifying.
Both experts believe that the Russian army would no longer be capable of fighting if the culture of torture, abuse, extortion, “annulments” and war crimes were to stop. “In reality, the functioning of the army is based on impunity and on abusing soldiers as a resource, as slaves,” Fyodorov said.
From the perspective of psychoanalyst Alina Putilovskaya, killings and torture are a method of exerting coercion, control and intimidation.
“The army leadership is not interested in building long-term relationships with people because they know that new ones will soon follow. Two things hold a community together, even in war: emotional bonds and coercion. If one of these is lost, in this case, the emotional bond, then coercion gains the upper hand, which in this case turns into cruelty that escalates to the extreme.”
Matveyev also added that the Russian soldiers do not understand what they are fighting for. “The Ukrainian army knows what it is fighting for, even though it is having a very difficult time and suffering from major problems. It is defending its country. Most of the Russian army is well aware that there is a serious, heinous war crime going on, involving a multitude of smaller crimes, and that they have to accept it,” the expert said.
