“When our vehicles were destroyed, the regimental commander told us to take shovels, go into battle like infantry and die,” a participant in the Russian invasion of Ukraine told his mother. The transcript of another intercepted conversation of enemy soldiers was published on Facebook by the Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR).
“Here they loot, they take literally everything, even fishing rods. (…) In a village near here, our soldier raped a 15-year-old girl. In the Russian army too, as you can see, there is no lack of stupidity in the heads of some fools,” reported a military man stationed in the Donetsk region.
Later in the conversation, the soldier talked about the high personnel losses of Russian troops.
“Our third infantry company consists of 95 per cent volunteers because all the other people are dead or wounded. There is virtually nothing left of the infantry at all. In addition, there are constant mistaken attacks on our positions. Communication fails – one hears that our people are not in some place, and then everyone dies there. (…) Absurd. It even happens that Russian artillery fire hits its infantry,” said the military officer.
It only looks nice on TV, but in reality (this war) is one big mess. Everyone knows this. If there wasn’t such a mess (in the Russian army), it would have ended a long time ago,” the soldier’s mother concluded.
Reports about the outdated equipment of the aggressor’s armed forces and the commanders’ disregard for human losses have been appearing since February 24, the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. “(The invaders) went to capture Kyiv with an old briefcase that contained crayons, glue and a compass. The last time I saw such a folder was many years ago when I was a student. And it was in a museum,” – the chief of police in the Kyiv region Andriy Niebytov assessed on 20 May.