ASTRA journalists were able to talk to a serviceman who claims to have been wounded during a shooting at a firing range in Soloti, Belgorod Region, and saw what happened with his own eyes. At the moment, the military is in a hospital in the city of Valuyki. ASTRA does not publish the name of the soldier, for his safety. IMPORTANT: At the time of publication, we were unable to independently verify the identity of either the narrator or any of the other individuals in the story.
“It all started with the fact that some of our soldiers — a Dagestani, an Azerbaijani and an Adyghe — said that “this is not our war” and tried to write a report that they did not want to serve anymore. Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Lapin, when he learned this through the company commander, gathered everyone and began to say that "this is a holy war." Everything happened in the morning at the parade ground, where the formation takes place, the anthem is sung. A conflict began, they began to push, including several people from my company.
And the Tajiks told Lapin in response that a holy war is when the war of Muslims with infidels. Lapin said that "Allah means a coward if he does not allow you to fight for the country to which you swore an oath." I personally think that this is what hurt the most, the phrase that "Allah is a weakling." The phrase shocked many people - from those who stood on the parade ground there. Because we also have Muslims among the officers - both Bashkirs and Tatars.
After the formation, the Russians and Muslims continued the conflict, after which everyone dispersed and, it seems, calmed down. And after an hour and a half, somewhere in the afternoon, they sent us all together to the shooting range, and three Tajiks who were in contract service, they deployed their machine guns, they had live ammunition, and shot our commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lapin, he died on place. And opened fire indiscriminately. There were both contract soldiers and mobilized at the training ground. The dead, whom only I saw - 29 people. The 30th is Lieutenant Colonel Lapin. This is not counting the two Tajiks who were killed along with them - 32. I don’t know exactly how many wounded, some have already been delivered by helicopter to Belgorod, some are now in Valuyki with me.
Two or three minutes before the shooting started, we Muslims were told to step aside. I remember that the names of the shooters are: Bikzot - he is a senior sergeant, the other is Anushe, and the third is junior sergeant Ami. I don't remember his last name, junior sergeant Ami ran away. And ensign Semyonov killed two of the shooters. Semyonov at that moment was in the room where boxes of cartridges are stored, where they are given to us. He has his own combat pistol, he was not present during the shooting itself, he heard what was happening, went out and shot both Tajiks. He hit Ami in the shoulder, but he managed to escape. He shot the wire, where the fence is, there is not even a fence, but a bent wire, this is the place through which some people went to the city when it was impossible to get through at the checkpoint. There is such an embankment, that is, he, roughly speaking, just stepped over. We were told that he was still on the run, he was not caught.
Specifically, these Tajiks (who opened fire - ed. note) - they were ardent supporters of their faith. They constantly cursed because they were not allowed to pray on time, they were not given a room for prayer, ”said the young man.
