Russian soldiers in hospitals in Belarus

Since February 24, when the Russian army invaded Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported casualties only once. On March 2, it announced that 498 soldiers had been killed and 1,597 wounded. Ukraine, on the other hand, now speaks of 14,200 dead on the Russian side. Probably neither side gives the right numbers. According to Belarusian media and the Telegram channel, many wounded Russian soldiers are being transported to Belarus, where they are receiving medical treatment and from there to Russia. This was confirmed even by the strong man of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, after five days of war, 160 to 170 Russian soldiers are being treated only in Gomel, Mozhir and another city in Belarus.

Injured Russians, in fact still children

Four sources confirmed to Deutsche Welle that there are Russian soldiers in hospitals in these cities in southern Belarus. In addition, a makeshift hospital was set up in Narovlita, near the Ukrainian border. According to one of DW’s interlocutors, many injured people are also coming to Mozir. Some soldiers were slow to get first aid so it was too late and they already had gangrene. “If the soldiers had been transported in time, they could have already saved their limbs,” the source said. The same source said that some of the injured were left without food for up to five days, had lost their orientation, had no idea where they were and only asked to call their parents. These are wounded people born in 2003, from poor areas of Russia. In fact they are still children. Another source, who is not directly related to the health service, but well informed about the situation, confirms that a hospital in the area in Gomel operates “non-stop”, up to 50 people in one night. Among them are normal citizens patients with scheduled surgeries.

Most of the time, surgeons need to mutilate members of the Russian military. “The hospital is full,” the source said, requesting that the location of the clinic not be made public. Several other DW sources report that not only wounded but also dead soldiers are being transported to Belarus. However, none of the interlocutors can give exact information about the number of dead. Photos do not exist. Many doctors contacted by DW refused to talk about the medical care provided to the Russian army. According to two interlocutors, the doctors had to sign a secret agreement on medical confidentiality. The Belarus Medical Solidarity Foundation notes that all hospitals are very strictly controlled. KGB or FSB secret agents have been placed directly in hospitals, all buildings are guarded. Many doctors who could theoretically say something were taken away from the hospitals. Others and hospital staff are scared and do not talk to anyone.

According to the Medical Solidarity Foundation of Belarus, there are too many dead soldiers. The clinics in Belarus are overcrowded. “All the injured, when possible, are transported to Russia by train,” said a spokesman for the foundation. Belarus’s health ministry has not commented on the Russian military’s medical treatment. From the point of view of international humanitarian law, aid to Russian soldiers wounded in battle is not complicity, explains political scientist Siarhay Bochtan, a research fellow at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute at the Free University of Berlin.

Is Belarus complicit in the war?

“One has to help all the wounded, no matter what army they belong to. Both on the battlefield and in the surrounding area,” he said. “But there are also nuances, because Russia does not officially consider what is happening as a war, and that means that the rules of international conventions do not apply in this case. Therefore, the situation of the wounded Russian soldiers in Belarus is not clear at the moment “. But why is information about wounded soldiers kept a secret? Siarhay Bohdan believes that the Belarussian authorities had no intention of concealing the facts, but that it was a result of a practice of discipline and bureaucracy developed in Belarus over the years.

Bohdan says Lukashenko does not want to take part in the invasion of Ukraine and that he is resisting “with all his might.” “It is important for Belarus to show that it is not doing anything serious against Ukraine itself, but is only forced to cooperate with Russia. The fact that Belarus hospitals are treating the wounded is, so to speak, a mild form of involvement “Russia, but from a humanitarian point of view, that does not constitute participation in the war.” “But the transfer of Russian military equipment to Ukraine through Belarusian territory is a form of complicity,” although it remains to be seen, according to the expert, why it is not clear whether the Belarussian government had a choice but to leave. military equipment to pass through its territory or not.

“There are serious doubts at this point,” Bohdan said. According to him, Lukashenko was just in front of the accomplices, when the Russian military, first came for exercises in Belarus and later took part in the attack against Ukraine. This confirmed the fact that while Ukraine and Russia were preparing for war and taking appropriate measures for a possible front line, Belarus did not follow through. That is why, according to the expert, wounded soldiers are now being treated in political hospitals in Belarus.

Olga Stefanovic, Markian Astapchuk

Edited by: Irini Anastassopoulou

Source: Deutsche Welle