The word 'pit' in the context of the Russian army ceased to be a metaphor back in 2023 — and has not become a thing of the past since.

In July 2023, mobilized soldiers of the 380th Motorized Rifle Regiment, stationed in Kursk Oblast, filmed a video from these very pits themselves. In June 2026, veteran Alexander Lunin publicly spoke about the same issue — torture and extrajudicial reprisals against soldiers who refused to carry out 'stupid suicidal orders.' Three years, and the same topic — just with different faces in front of the camera.

Kursk, 2023: 'Worse Than Captivity'

Soldiers of the 380th Motorized Rifle Regiment recorded a video showing the conditions in the so-called 'pits' — premises where mobilized soldiers are held for weeks in inhumane conditions as punishment for various transgressions. According to them, one could end up there, for example, 'for talking too much' or simply for the smell of alcohol.

The video's creators knew of at least three such pits. In one instance, it was literally a seven-meter pit dug into the ground, where offenders were herded and kept outdoors. Fifteen people lay on five square meters — according to their own words, 'on some rags,' which were taken away from them during the day, leaving people on the bare ground.

In addition to being held in the pit, mobilized soldiers were regularly beaten by military police and forced to perform heavy physical labor — specifically, loading logs.

'Zeroing Out'

Independent journalistic investigations have repeatedly described an even more severe phenomenon, known in the Russian army slang as 'zeroing out' — extrajudicial killings of soldiers or sending undesirable personnel to certain death under the guise of a combat mission. Unlike the pits, documenting specific cases of 'zeroing out' with names and dates is significantly more difficult: by definition, it leaves no witnesses among the victims themselves.

2026: The Veteran Who Spoke Out Again

On June 25, 2026, exactly on the third anniversary of Yevgeny Prigozhin's march on Moscow, 39-year-old Alexander Lunin from Voronezh Oblast — a former reconnaissance squad commander of the Sudoplatov Volunteer Battalion, formed by the administration of occupied Melitopol — published a video address to Vladimir Putin.

Lunin claimed to possess evidence of torture and illegal punishments against Russian servicemen — 'for refusing to carry out stupid suicidal orders. For refusing to hand over their financial resources.' He demanded a personal meeting with the president or airtime on federal television, warning: if this does not happen, 'the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin.'

The video garnered about 12 million views in 24 hours. On June 26, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Kremlin was aware of the appeal but had not yet had time to review it, noting that its wording was 'quite strange.'

Response to the Appeal: Search and Arrest

No investigation into the substance of Lunin's claims followed. Instead, according to The Moscow Times, police searched his home — Lunin himself was not there; he had left for Moscow the day before and ceased contact. Later, his wife wrote that he was 'alive and well,' asked not to comment for now, and deleted his video.

According to Telegram channels, Lunin was detained and sentenced to 11 days of administrative arrest — the specific charges against him were not publicly disclosed. On July 9, 2026, he was released.

Three Years Between Two Stories

In 2023, the complaints of the mobilized soldiers of the 380th Regiment did not lead to a public investigation into their detention conditions. In 2026, Lunin's claims did not lead to an investigation into the torture and 'zeroing out' he reported — instead, they led to the administrative arrest of the whistleblower himself.

The pattern repeats in other documented cases that we have already covered in our materials: servicemen of the 126th and 127th Motorized Rifle Regiments also previously reported that wounded soldiers and those who refused to obey orders were held in pits without water or food until they agreed to return to duty. This is not a coincidence or an isolated incident within a single unit — it is a recognizable modus operandi that surfaces in the testimonies of servicemen from various regiments, divisions, and years of the war.

Conclusion

None of these episodes individually constitutes a legally established fact regarding specific culprits — Russian authorities have not publicly conducted an independent investigation into the conditions of detention in 'pits' in either 2023 or 2026. However, the number of independent testimonies — from Kursk to Voronezh, from mobilized soldiers to a career veteran with combat experience — consistently points to a widespread practice, not just a rumor.

The only thing that truly changed in the three years between these stories is that the system's reaction became faster. In 2023, mobilized soldiers who filmed a video from a pit were simply left in the same conditions. In 2026, the veteran who publicly spoke about the same issue was found, searched, and isolated from journalists for 11 days within a matter of days.