"We are fighting to overthrow Putin". These are the words of one of the many Russian soldiers who changed side and passed to the ranks of Kiev in the so-called "legion of free Russia" , a special array of troops created to oppose the power of the Tsar, increasingly in crisis after the start of the fighting in Ukraine .

Rebellion, a spirit of revenge, indignation for the authoritarian and often ruthless ways in which the generals of Moscow conduct operations in a foreign land: there are many reasons that have prompted several comrades to change sides. "I learned that in the last 24 hours there have been 300 requests to join our legion," one of Putin's former soldiers said in a press point organized by Interfax Ukraine.

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The soldiers presented themselves in the press point with the faces covered with masks because of "Our safety and that of our families who remained in Russia, without the possibility of leaving. If we talk, our relatives will be persecuted ”. They did not even reveal the number of members of the "legion of free Russia", but only made it known that they are "many" and that "military and former military and Russian citizens (and Belarusians) who join us ".

The Moscow soldiers who went to fight with Kiev have therefore addressed an appeal "to all Russian citizens and soldiers: join us to fight the Putin regime", hoping that "in Russia there are still conscientious people who will help us to oust Putin ”. The three took the decision to join the pro-Ukrainian legion made up of Russian soldiers in prison, where they ended up after seeing - one of them said - «all the massacres that Putin committed at the hands of Russian soldiers: looting in the homes of ordinary citizens, killing of civilians, destruction of kindergartens, houses, orphanages, hospitals, civilians used as shields ». Among the reasons that convinced them to enlist in the legion of free Russia also the goal of "stopping the death of civilians, because the sooner the war ends, the fewer victims there will be on both sides."