Hundreds of Russian troops are refusing to invade Ukraine, lawyer says, as a group of national guardsmen sue the government

• A lawyer for Russian troops fired for refusing to go to Ukraine said nearly 1,000 others had contacted him.
• "A lot of people don't want to go and fight," Mikhail Benyash told the Financial Times.

A lawyer representing a group of Russian national guardsmen refusing to join the invasion of Ukraine said that hundreds of other soldiers and guardsmen had been in touch with him looking for help to avoid the war.

Mikhail Benyash told the Financial Times that "a lot of people don't want to go and fight" and that around 1,000 people had been in touch with him since his case representing the guardsmen was made public.

He said he represents 12 national guardsmen who were fired for refusing to go to Ukraine.

They were members of Rosgvardia, which is a force separate to the military. They argued that this meant they shouldn't be sent to Ukraine, the FT reported.

The men thought that they would be doing something illegal if they went abroad as part of an armed group, Reuters reported. They also do not have passports, Reuters reported.

They filed a wrongful dismissal suit against the government, Reuters and the FT reported.

Benyash said just three of those 12 guardsmen proceeded with the lawsuit, Reuters and the FT reported. The other nine withdrew their claims because they were threatened, Benyash said, according to the FT.

The reports come as Ukrainian and Western officials described flagging morale among Russian troops. On Thursday, the head of the UK's GCHQ intelligence service said Russian soldiers were "refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment, and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft."