Ukrainian soldiers seen in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on May 29, 2022.REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Russian troops in Ukraine nearly killed a general who ordered them to the front lines, Ukraine said.

Ukrainian intelligence published audio it said was of a Russian soldier describing it.

He said one soldier threatened Gen. Valeriy Solodchuk with a grenade.

An intercepted phone call shows Russian soldiers were moments from killing a top general who ordered them to the front line, Ukrainian intelligence says.

Ukraine's Security Services (SBU) on Tuesday published audio it says was from an intercepted call describing the situation.

The call, said to be made by a soldier calling his wife, described a unit in Donetsk getting into a stand-off with Gen. Valeriy Solodchuk, commander of the 36th Army, after he ordered them to fight.

Almost all the remaining 215 troops in the 600-person battalion refused to follow Solodchuk's instructions, the soldier is heard saying, even though their contracts with the Russian military obliged them to follow orders.

"Almost all of our battery refused. He [Solodchuk] started waving his gun and shooting He says 'I'll whack you if you don't fucking go there! ...'," the man says in the recording.

"Then, a kid says to him: 'Go ahead, whack!' Fuck, he pulled out a grenade, pulled a pin and says: 'Come on, shoot me! We'll blow up together.' That's it. The special forces guys also started pointing their guns at us. So, we pointed our guns at them."

"In short, we almost shot each other, for fuck's sake. He got on his bobik [a type of Russian Jeep] and left," the voice said.

Russia has seen more success in recent weeks after scaling back its war aims, which initially saw its military fail to take Kyiv.

Now Russian forces are focusing on taking the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has taken territory and Ukraine admits it is struggling.

However, the war has been extremely costly for Russia, and troops numbers and supplies are dwindling.

"Our brigade can't capture anything because there's fucking nothing left of it," the voice on the audio says of his fellow troops.

Other reports have detailed a growing number of Russian troops and mercenaries refusing to fight in Ukraine. Last week, the Guardian reported that 115 members of Russia's national guard were fired for refusing to fight.

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