There are about 1,000 Russian soldiers in Kazakhstan according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The directorate says the military corps stationed in the country “does not want to replenish the composition of the occupation army” in Ukraine, according to a translation of a Telegram post. However, it also said that the “official reason for the refusal is the lack of special air transport, which is fully involved in the war with Ukraine.” Ukrainska Pravda first reported the intelligence officials’ allegations on Saturday. Above, Russian soldiers stand guard at the Luhansk power plant in Shchastya, Ukraine, on April 13. Russian troops in Kazakhstan are refusing to return to Russia because they do not want to be deployed in the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian intelligence officials said Saturday. Alexander Nemenov In its Telegram post, the directorate said Moscow does not want to fully withdraw its troops from Kazakhstan. The troops were sent into the country in January after rallies against its government. The directorate added that Russia has almost completely withdrawn its troops from nearby Tajikistan and Armenia to support its war in Ukraine. Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment. The claims about Russian troops in Kazakhstan come as Russian President Vladimir Putin called on his military to add additional troops amid the ongoing war. Putin ordered the army to raise 137,000 new soldiers, bringing the total number to 1.15 million, by January 1. Retired US Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said Saturday he believes the development shows the Russian military is “in trouble.” “Are they going to put these young recruits through their basic training, which frankly, isn’t very good, and then send them straight into a unit to try to learn combined arms operations, which are very difficult? without any additional training? If that’s the case, they’re going to be in trouble,” Hertling said in an interview with CNN. In May, The Daily Beast reported that a Russian soldier said his commander shot himself in the leg to escape the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s intelligence directorate released a phone call at the time, identifying the speaker as a Russian soldier talking to his mother. “This is not going to end soon. What the hell do I need this for? In my 20s… I don’t care about Ukraine at all. I have to go back and resign,” the soldier said during the call. “I had a commander…who shot himself in the foot just to get out of here. And that was at the beginning!”
