Russian soldiers trying to QUIT in humiliating blow for Putin. RUSSIAN soldiers are trying to quit the military before they are redeployed to Ukraine after suffering heavy losses during their first mission, intelligence suggests. After more than six weeks of heavy fighting without significant progress, Putin is rotating his forces out of Ukraine to concentrate on encircling the Donbass region. But the Russian army is suffering a crisis of moral after heavy losses, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. The 20th Motorised Infantry division, based in the Russian town of Kamyshin, lost 40 percent of its troops, weaponry and military hardware during the fighting, the intelligence suggests. The update states that Russian troops from this division who are now returning to Russia to re-equip are trying to quit the army before they are ordered back into Ukraine to continue fighting.