Russia turns on Putin: Politicians demand ‘immediate withdrawal’ from Ukraine

Communist MP Leonid Vasyukevich, 69, is pictured. He has appealed to Putin to stop military action and bring his troops home. ‘Young men die and are maimed during the operation, even though they could have benefited our country,’ he told legislators

A veteran Russian legislator has issued an appeal to Vladimir Putin to stop military action, bring his troops home and end the war in Ukraine.

Communist deputy Leonid Vasyukevich, 69, blasted the use of Moscow’s servicemen in Ukraine, as a Russian court dismissed more than 100 national guardsmen in the first case of soldiers refusing to fight in Ukraine as politicians demanded the army return home.

Members of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, a separate military branch from the Russian army refused to carry out an assignment related to Moscow’s ‘special operation’ in Ukraine.

A military court in Russia’s southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria found that the defendants ‘arbitrarily refused to perform an official assignment’ and turned down their appeal.

The hearing was held behind closed doors to avoid revealing ‘military secrets,’ according to the Moscow Times.

The veteran local MP defied attempts to gag him and told legislators in Primorsky region he and his fellow lawmakers were making an appeal to the Russian president

The veteran local MP defied attempts to gag him and told legislators in the Primorsky region he and his fellow lawmakers were making an appeal to the Russian president.

Putin’s supporters have branded him a ‘traitor’ and he may now face legal action for dishonouring the Russian army.

‘We are backing measures to support families of servicemen killed during the special military operation,’ he told the regional legislator in Vladivostok, Russia’s Pacific capital.

‘We understand that unless our country stops the special military operation, there will be even more orphans.

‘Young men die and are maimed during the operation, even though they could have benefited our country.’

Three months have passed since the start of the war ‘and it is clearly impossible to reach success by a military way’, he said, amid interruptions from the assembly.

Vasyukevich said three months have passed since the start of the war ‘and it is clearly impossible to reach success by a military way’ 

Vladimir Putin meets the governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako (right) in Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia. Governor Kozhemyako accused Vasyukevich and his supporters of defaming the Russian army, and demanded he should be removed from the assembly

If Putin continues his war, it ‘will inevitably lead to an increase in numbers of killed and wounded servicemen.

‘We demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine…’

Throughout his brave speech – the loyalist chairman of the parliament Alexander Rolik tried to halt his outburst.

‘I am warning you…You are abusing the agenda’, he was told.

‘You are violating the order to speak without permission.’

His blast has caused ructions within the political assembly as the politician was seen to break some of the strictest controls on any public dissent about the war.

Anatoly Dolgachev, head of his faction, told Vasyukevich: ‘You defame the honour of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with such a statement.’

Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region

‘We are backing measures to support families of servicemen killed during the special military operation,’ said the politician. ‘We understand that unless our country stops the special military operation, there will be even more orphans’

A young boy sits in front of a damaged building after a strike in Kramatorsk in the eastern Ukranian region of Donbas

Governor Oleg Kozhemyako accused him and his supporters of defaming the Russian army, and demanded he should be removed from the assembly.

‘These actions discredit the Russian army and our defenders who stand in the fight against Nazism. A traitor,’ stormed the angry governor.

Another MP hitting out at the war, Gennady Shulga, demanded that Vasyukevich should be heard and not abused.

But other MPs voted to deny the pair the right to vote.

Vasyukevich is the grandson of a Finnish-born explorer and whaler Fridolf Heck, who died in Vladivostok in 1904.

There is growing evidence of a backlash against the war in Russia as rock concerts have become venues for protest against the conflict in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a ‘special operation’.

As many as 16 military recruitment offices have been hit by Molotov cocktails in defiance over bids to surge enlistment into the army through conscription.