Russian soldiers reportedly shot their commanding officer after he threatened to send them to their deaths and then “f***” their wives. Colonel Yevgeny Borisovich Ladnov was the commander of the 19th Tank Regiment.
He became renowned for his brutal treatment of soldiers, acquiring the dubious nickname “butcher commander”. The Russian army reported his death in November last year, claiming he had been killed by artillery shelling near Kreminna in the Luhansk region. However, a junior sergeant who served under Ladnov claimed he was shot by his own troops after boasting that their deaths would help get him promoted.
Andrey Perevoshchikov made his shocking claims in a video which he later posted to social media. He alleged that Ladnov was deliberately sending his men to their deaths en masse and told them so in no uncertain terms.
Perevoshchikov explained: “He [Ladnov] gathered the stormtroopers and said: ‘What the f**k, you f**king stormtroopers, why are you still alive, you f**king bastards?
“The more of you there are [dead], the more stars I get on my epaulettes and medals. You are not meat to me, you are just a number. I have destroyed two assault regiments and by autumn I will destroy you, and I will deliver the death notices to your wives, and I will f*** your wives.”
Similar accounts of the shocking mistreatment of troops in the regiment have also surfaced in the past few months.
A female medic who deserted from the regiment alleged that Ladnov and his senior officers ran a corrupt scheme to rake in the cash at the expense of wounded and killed soldiers.
She claimed: “soldiers were simply sold, like football players were sold, for slaughter.”
Soldiers listed as killed were transferred to another list for those missing-in-action, according to the medic, to prevent compensation money being paid to their relatives. The senior officers then divided the salaries of the so-called missing-in-action among themselves, she claimed.
She continued: “In addition to this, they did not take the wounded from the battlefield. They rotted and died there, in order not to pay [compensation] for the wounds. Again, for the wounded guys, they listed them as missing in action.
“And the money was distributed between the commander, between Ladnov and, again, his henchmen.”