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Russian conscripts attacked their officer and left him with a ‘smashed’ face after he bluntly told them: ‘You are all cannon fodder’.
The furious soldiers threw punches at the Lieutenant-Colonel after he said they were ‘facing slaughter’.
A video of the brawl at the Rubin Palace of Sports has emerged, but it is not clear if it was the punch-up in which the officer’s face was struck.
Hundreds of thousands of reservists have been sent to fight in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin as part of his mobilisation plans, which have sparked protests in Russia.
The brother of a draftee said: ‘My brother messaged me just now. There was a Lt Colonel walking among the newly-mobilised recruits, telling them, “you are all cannon fodder, you are facing slaughter.”
‘There was a fight, the colonel’s face was smashed. They could hardly pull the soldiers apart. Two ambulances rushed there in one hour.’
Reports said the unnamed high ranking officer’s face was ‘all smashed’ with broken bones.
The brother also revealed this has not been he only incident at the makeshift barracks, with some recruits trying to escape and others fearing more violence.
He said: ‘One person fell sick [after the cannon fodder threat], one tried to escape, they caught him.
‘Many people felt sick, many were in tears. It’s a f****** nightmare what’s happening there.
‘There are 1,080 people, they’ll end up in knife fights, it’s a complete mess. All of them are drunk, every single one of them.’
It comes as thousands of people have crossed the border out of Russia to escape the draft over fears one million men will be conscripted.
A Kremlin source told Novaya Gazeta Europe 261,000 men had evacuated between Wednesday and Saturday.
Images of people dragging suitcases alongside the road in an attempt to flee have also emerged, with flights out of country rising in price to the extent a ticket to nearby Armenia now costs £1,000.
A Kremlin spokesman acknowledged irregularities in their mobilisation efforts, but shifted blame onto local authorities.
Dmitri Peskov, one of Putin’s key propagandists, said: ‘There are cases when the decree has been violated. In some regions, governors are actively working to correct the situation.
‘These cases of noncompliance with the required criteria are being eliminated, and we hope that the rate of elimination will increase and all errors will be corrected.’
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