Russian soldiers are reportedly shooting themselves in the legs to avoid fighting in Ukraine.

Troops look for Ukrainian ammunition to use so they can go to the hospital without it looking like a self-inflicted wound, local media claims.

It follows a collapse in morale among Putin’s forces after they were forced to kill peaceful civilians.

In one conversation between soldiers intercepted by Belarusian media source NEXTA, a Russian said: “They’ve been shooting at us for 14 days. We’re scared. We’re stealing food, breaking into houses. We’re killing civilians.

“Russian officers shoot themselves in the legs to go home. There are corpses everywhere.”

Another said troops are “looking for Ukrainian ammunition in order to shoot themselves in the legs and go to hospital”.

It comes after furious soldiers warned they will rise up against Vladimir Putin.

His troops branded one particular airstrike on a maternity hospital “the most perverse f***ing form of neo-Nazism”.

And soldiers have since warned their warmongering leader he “won’t hide this for long”, adding “we all will be judged”.

One reconnaissance officer, Vladimir, told an international media briefing this week: “I want to tell our commander-in-chief to stop terror acts in Ukraine because when we come back we’ll rise against him.”

Another officer at the same event told Putin: “You won’t hide this for long. There are many like us here. Sooner or later, we’ll come home.”

One Russian fighter pilot, Maxim, became emotional while speaking about the suffering civilians have had to endure since his country’s invasion.

He told CNN: “I don’t know, what can justify, f***, the tears of a child, or even worse, the deaths of innocent people, children.”

The soldiers laid the blame at the feet of Russian commanders for “horrifying” crimes against “peaceful Ukrainian civilians” – and warned “you cannot forgive such things”.

And CNN reported another soldier saying: “Russian President Vladimir Putin has given orders to commit crimes.

“It’s not just to demilitarize Ukraine or defeat the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but now cities of peaceful civilians are being destroyed.

“The crimes that we committed; we all will be judged.”