Russia Now Using “Blocking Units” to Shoot Retreating Soldiers in Ukraine

The latest defense intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defense claims that Russia has fielded “barrier troops” or “blocking units” whose only purpose is to keep Russian soldiers corralled in the area of operations (AO) and shoot those who retreat or desert.

This isn’t the first time Russians have killed retreating Russians.

In the early days of the German blitzkrieg, Joseph Stalin issued August 1941’s Order №270, which proclaimed that “any troops who surrendered or allowed themselves to be captured were traitors in the eyes of the law and would be executed if they ever returned to the Soviet Union.”

Stalin later threw down the gauntlet with Order №227, also known as the “Not One Step Backward!” rule which said that cowards were to be “liquidated on the spot.”

Under this order, any troops who retreated were to be shelled or gunned down by what were known as “blocking units” — special detachments who were positioned behind and on the flanks of their own lines and were tasked with shooting any soldier who tried to retreat.

Stalin’s brutal orders were designed to increase the Red Army’s fighting spirit, but they weren’t…