Ukrainian military intelligence has reported that Russian commanders at the front have enacted “order No. 222”, which allows opening fire on those who abandon their battlefield position.

It authorizes “blocking units” (also “barrier troops” and “anti-retreat forces”) to treat their own soldiers as the enemy. It echoes Stalin’s wartime order “No. 227” that was widely known as “Not a step back”.

This concept first arose in 1918, during the Russian Civil War, when War Commissar Leon Trotsky ordered unreliable Red Army front-line troops to be shot by blocking detachments if deserting or retreating without permission.

(Pikemalt saab lugeda Eesti Elu 11. novembri 2022 paber- ja digilehest)

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