In February 2022, Konstantin Efremov, a Russian military officer from the Republic of North Ossetia, was deployed as part of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Three months later, he quit the military, left the country, and went public with what he had seen on the front line. In interviews, Efremov spoke about Russian troops torturing Ukrainian POWs, abusing civilians, and mistreating their own soldiers who refused to fight.
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Question: On February 20, a Russian court sentenced you in absentia to seven years for spreading “disinformation.” Do you know how the case came about?
Efremov: I found out about the verdict on the Internet. I was scrolling through YouTube and suddenly there’s my face. I already knew that they’d launched a criminal case in 2025. My mother, who lives in Vladikavkaz, told me investigators had come to see her and tried to drag her to the Investigative Committee office. She refused. They harassed her for two weeks. They even showed up on my birthday.
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Seven years [prison sentence] is complete nonsense. A total mockery of the law. But they’re just pawns, trained poodles doing the regime’s bidding. And I hate all of it … By 2022, I had ten years of service behind me. I had my own plans for my life, and they trashed all of it. I had savings set aside. I deliberately avoided taking out a military mortgage so I wouldn’t end up in bondage, because otherwise the command can do whatever they want with you … I wanted to get married, I wanted kids, and I genuinely loved my work as a sapper. I was proud not to be some deadweight warming a chair at headquarters. And then the war came, and they said: that’s it, go fucking die.
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The [full-scale] war in Ukraine started. I spent three months in it, and I’ll say this: I had a much higher opinion of the Russian army and the people I served with. I was deeply disappointed. Though “shock” might be a better word. You thought the people you worked and spent every day with were more or less decent human beings. And then it turns out they’re sadists and petty thieves, small and mean-spirited. And you feel so disgusted — you don’t want any part of it.
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On the morning of February 24th, I woke up to the sound of artillery. That’s when I understood: this fucking madman had actually started a war. This wasn’t a show of force or a bluff.
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Eventually I got to the chief of staff [as I wnanted to resign fromt the army]. I walked in and his phones were ringing off the hook. He said: “You want to resign? Do you realize guys are dying out there right now?” I told him I was aware. He pulled his pistol from its holster and said: “Maybe I should just shoot your legs off?” I said, no, just let me resign and that’s it.
That colonel — [Alexander] Sayenko — served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces until 2014 and then switched sides like a total rat.
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In Kamianka we had three prisoners. Sober, [Russian division’s political officer, Colonel Vitaly] Shopaga interrogated them brutally. Drunk, he was a whole different perso. One Ukrainian soldier who admitted to being a sniper was beaten badly — by both Shopaga and the battalion commander, Major Dutov. They kept demanding he name “nationalists.” That was the only question I ever heard from Shopaga, like a broken record. He would blindfold the prisoner and fire a pistol next to his face to deafen him.
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The holding area was a garage, and anyone could walk in — so I saw all of this in detail. At one point Shopaga pulled down the man’s pants and underwear and said: “I’m going to call in a guy from Dagestan to rape you. We’ll film it and send it to your mother.” Then: “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Yes.” “We’ll send it to her too.”
The rank-and-file soldiers kept trying to get into the garage. One young idiot I had posted as a guard just opened the door and let them in. They went in and started abusing the prisoners, who were bound and blindfolded. The sniper was crouching on the floor and one soldier kicked him and broke his nose. During another interrogation, Shopaga simply shot the same man through the hand and leg.
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I often heard other soldiers say things like, “Ukrainians are the enemy,” and talk about what happens to our Russian guys when they’re captured… I argued with them. Looking back now, I wonder how I wasn’t afraid. I’d say things like, “Listen, the guys who ended up prisoners here — did anyone drag them here? Didn’t we come ourselves? What did these prisoners ever do to you?”
I didn’t manage to change anyone’s mind, of course.
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There’s definitely a worry that they [the U.S. immigration and customs enforcement] could just pick me up and deport me to Moscow. With this administration, you expect anything — nothing surprises you. But I don’t consider myself a big enough fish to be of interest to the Republicans or to Trump. I’m no Navalny; not many people know who I am. Though sometimes I think — how many officers have actually spoken out? You could probably count us on one hand.
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On the whole, I’m okay here in America, but I want to go home. In my Ossetia, you could build a second Switzerland. Maybe even better than the first. We have the most beautiful mountains, the most warm-hearted and generous people — the vast majority of them not taken in by propaganda. As for the small part of the old guard that keeps sending young people off to die — I don’t wish them death. I want them to live long enough to see us come back from exile. And to answer for everything they’ve done.
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