“The Russian army reflects the society from which it is formed”: journalists from the British Daily Mail were shocked by footage of hazing and sadistic treatment prevailing in the Russian army

On March 22, 2026, the British Daily Mail published a major article about torture, humiliation, and actual internal terror in the Russian army. This is not a story about a single commander’s breakdown or another episode of frontline brutality. According to the videos and reports collected by the publication, it is about a system where soldiers are first broken within the unit and then thrown into so-called “meat assaults” — until the ammunition, strength, or life itself runs out.

For the Israeli reader, the scale of the savagery is not the only important aspect, although it is shocking in itself. What is more important is that the Daily Mail shows an army that treats its people as if they are not servicemen but expendable material. And this already explains a lot about how such a system conducts war in general.

What exactly did the Daily Mail see

Punishment as a norm, humiliation as the language of power

In the footage described by the Daily Mail, commanders beat their own soldiers, torture them with electricity, deprive them of food, force them to crawl through mud, chain them to trees in the cold, keep them in pits and boxes, and in some cases, drive them to fight to the death. One episode shows two naked men in a pit: a commander yells at them and shoots the ground nearby, ordering them to stay there until they “understand how to follow orders.” In another, two men are beaten on the head and forced to crawl through mud, accompanied by mocking shouts.

There are also scenes that go beyond ordinary hazing even by the standards of the Russian army. The Daily Mail writes about a man chained by the neck inside a box, over which a commander mocks with food and water. In another video, half-naked soldiers are chained to a tree, forced to bark, and then further humiliated. In yet another episode, a man has “I am a thief” written on his chest, is dressed as a clown, and forced to dance to the laughter of those around him. This is not about discipline. This is about demonstrative dehumanization.

The Daily Mail separately notes that the violence is both physical and psychological. The article mentions an army booklet titled Branding of personnel, where, according to the publication’s description, recruits have numbered marks on their chests reminiscent of Nazi depersonalization practices. Even at this level, it is not just about bullying in the unit, but about a model where a soldier is first stripped of dignity and then of personality.

“Whoever kills the other first”: what an army of internal execution looks like

The most terrifying fragment of the Daily Mail material is a video where two soldiers are forced to fight in a pit, and a commander’s voice explains the rule: the one who kills the other first will come out. The publication writes that the video lasts about two minutes and ends with one apparently strangling the other to death. Next to the video was an anonymous message claiming it involved fighters from the 114th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

The article also cites another anonymous message, this time about the 132nd Brigade. It states that the unit has “completely gone off the rails,” and what is happening to the soldiers undergoing treatment is humiliation, beatings, and mockery. Importantly, the Daily Mail links these episodes not only to punishment for refusal or escape but also to the overall system structure, where any disobedient, weak, or wounded person becomes a target for internal terror.

From the same logic grows the term “storm assaults,” on which the Daily Mail places strong emphasis. In one of the messages cited in the article, it is said that in the absence of normal disciplinary practice, the main punishment at the front has become precisely being sent into an assault. Didn’t extend the contract — assault. Didn’t sign the contract — assault. Caught with a smartphone — assault. In other words, here punishment is a likely death in advance.

Why this system is sustained by poverty, fear, and impunity

Military expert Keir Giles in a comment to the Daily Mail formulates the key thought harshly and without diplomacy: the Russian army reflects the society from which it emerged. He speaks of violence, extortion, and corruption as endemic phenomena, not deviations. And this is perhaps the central thought of the entire material: what is brought to the front is not random cruelty, but an internal social norm.

Giles also recalls the old Russian “hazing,” which the army tried to eradicate at the beginning of the century but failed to do so. In his assessment, the system of terror by senior servicemen over juniors has not truly disappeared. It just now exists in the conditions of a large war, huge losses, and a chronic need for new bodies.

The Daily Mail writes that over the past four years, Putin’s forces have lost more than 1.25 million killed and wounded, with monthly losses estimated at about 40,000 people, while recruitment provides about 35,000. Against this backdrop, commanders, according to the publication, increasingly resort to crude violence to drive people into the ranks. The article separately mentions poor regions, the homeless, ethnic minorities, prisoners, and people who are literally pushed into the army by pressure, blackmail, and beatings.

The Daily Mail also has an important social emphasis here. Giles says that Putin does not want to mobilize large cities on a large scale because people there exchange information faster and better understand the real cost of war. It is more convenient to concentrate losses in the hinterland. It is precisely there, according to the logic of the article, that it is easier to extract people from poverty, from hopelessness, from the periphery — and turn them into a silent resource.

And at this point, the phrase NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency sounds not like an editorial insert, but as a substantive conclusion: we are not just looking at an army with poor discipline, but a military machine where internal cruelty is built into the very method of recruitment, subordination, and sending people to death.

The wounded are not treated — they are sent back to die

One of the most difficult sections in the Daily Mail article is dedicated to the wounded, who are sent back into battle. The publication describes footage where soldiers on crutches are given weapons and driven back to the front line, including as part of the 20th Army. One of them says he has fought five times, received two severe wounds and a severe traumatic brain injury, but he is simply “given a weapon” again and taken to the front.

In another video recounted by the Daily Mail, a group of severely wounded soldiers — with broken legs, missing fingers, and other severe injuries — films themselves after the hospital and says they are being sent into an assault right from there. One of them calls the commander a “psycho” and says they are driven like meat to the slaughter. Another former fighter of the 132nd Brigade claims that the army refused to properly treat his numerous injuries, even though doctors declared him unfit for combat. According to him, even people without eyes, with broken arms and legs, with torn intestines were sent to the front.

Giles at this point gives perhaps the shortest and most accurate formula of the entire article: if your only function is to be a bullet sponge, then it doesn’t matter whether you go yourself, on crutches, or already wounded. In the Russian retelling, this thought doesn’t even need embellishment. It already sounds like a ready diagnosis of the system.

What is happening on the front line with those who are still alive

The Daily Mail also presents footage from a Ukrainian dugout where soldiers of the 31st Regiment of the 25th Army shelter in winter. They say they found rotten cola, potatoes next to a corpse, received two cans of porridge and two packs of nuts — and that’s it. They drink water from a puddle, complain about hunger, lack of rotations, inability to wash, and that the wounded are dragged without evacuation. There is also an almost desperate plea to their commanders: they will continue to fight, but at least let them have food, ammunition, and evacuation for the wounded.

This is perhaps the main nerve of the Daily Mail material. Not only torture. Not only mockery. But a combination of humiliation, extortion, scarcity, corruption, and complete replaceability of a person. When your own are beaten, marked, kept on a chain, sent back to assault after the hospital, and simultaneously starved, it is no longer possible to pretend that the problem is reduced to “cruel commanders.” The Daily Mail describes not a set of separate crimes, but a coherent military environment where human life is worth less than an order.