Russian Officer Quits Putin's War In Ukraine

It took a few weeks of sleeping on crates of grenades for a bed and hiding his face from Ukrainians amid a growing sense of guilt, for the Russian junior officer to come to his conclusion that this wasn't his battle to fight, Uliana Pavlova reported in an exclusive for CNN.

Photo Insert: The Ukrainian resistance is still proving to be a handful for Russia's army, thus resulting in low morale among the ranks of the would-be conquerors.

"We were dirty and tired. People around us were dying. I didn't want to feel like I was part of it, but I was a part of it," the officer told CNN. He said he went to find his commander and resigned his commission on the spot.

CNN is not naming the officer or including personal details that would help to identify him for his security. His story is remarkable, but it could also be one of many, according to opponents of the war in Russia as well as in Ukraine who say they have heard of a lot of cases of soldiers -- both professional and conscript -- refusing to fight.

Russian troops have been struggling with low morale and heavy losses in Ukraine, according to the assessments by Western officials including the Pentagon. The UK's Intelligence, Cyber, and Security Agency says some have even refused to carry out orders.

Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees of Russia, said there were many complaints and concerns heard when the first units rotated out of Ukraine for rest. "Soldiers and officers wrote resignation reports, that they could not return successfully," she told CNN.

"The main reasons are, firstly, the moral and psychological state. And the second reason is for moral convictions. They wrote reports then and are writing reports now." Melnikova, whose organization was formed in 1989, said all troops had the right to file reports while acknowledging that some of the commanders might refuse them or try to intimidate soldiers.

The Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate reported that in several Russian units, specifically the 150th Motorized Rifle Division of the 8th Army of the Southern Military District, as many as 60% to 70% of soldiers were refusing to serve. Aleksei Tabalov, a human rights activist and director of an organization helping Russian conscripts, told CNN that he personally consulted two soldiers who resigned from the military.

"The same guys who refused to fight and turned to us, there were two of them, but from the brigade that they left, another 30 people refused to fight," Tabalov told CNN.

"I can't say that this is a mass phenomenon, but this phenomenon is quite strong. If you estimate for all the cases from other organizations plus indirect information, the number goes over 1,000," Tabalov added.

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