Soldier gives insight into Russia's perfidious war machine - "How do you want to fight like that?"
Created: 07/26/2022, 16:27
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
A soldier of the Russian Army.
(Iconic photo) © Alexey Maishev / Imago Images
In the Ukraine war, Russia sends new recruits without experience to the front lines.
Without the necessary basic military knowledge, the front becomes a death trap.
Moscow/Munich - In the Ukraine war, the troops of the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin are fighting with heavy losses.
This was recently confirmed by the British Army Chief Tony Radakin on the BBC.
He spoke of around 50,000 soldiers killed or wounded.
In order to eliminate the high deficit of soldiers, the Russian military is recruiting more and more fighters.
Putin resorts to unconventional methods and lures young men to the front with promises of large sums of money, among other things.
A key point, however, is that there is a lack of experience.
Without them, surviving in war and fighting effectively is difficult.
Ukraine-News: Ivan (31) was sent to the front after just five days - Russian recruits are inexperienced
The example of 31-year-old Ivan (name has been changed) shows how inexperienced the new recruits in the Russian military are and are sent straight into combat after only a few days of training.
He was trained just five days before being sent to Ukraine, Ivan told the Russian opposition newspaper
Moscow Times
.
Even with basic knowledge such as operating a machine gun, there are problems.
"In our company there was a soldier who didn't know how a machine gun worked," Ivan said.
He showed him himself how to disassemble the rifle and then put it back together.
"I wouldn't want to be next to him in a fight," the Russian recruit insisted, asking, "How do you want to fight like that?"
Ivan's question is entirely justified, because joining the Kremlin chief's bloody war of aggression without basic knowledge or experience means almost certain death for the young soldiers.
Military expert Pavel Luzin shares this assessment.
"A week of training is nothing," he
told Moscow Times
, adding, "For a soldier, it's a straight line to the hospital or a body bag."
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Ukraine News: Russia promises recruits four weeks of training - but sends them almost directly into battle
The website of the Russian Ministry of Defense actually promises four intensive weeks of training.
It's about 240 hours of training at the shooting range and military strategies.
According to the director of the human rights group “Citizens.
Army.
Right”, Sergej Krivenko, however, this principle is not being observed in the middle of the Ukraine war.
Krivenko's human rights organization serves as a legal advisor to Russian soldiers.
He told the
Moscow Times
that parents of soldiers who were sent to Ukraine after just a week had contacted him.
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Ivan described the five-day training at a Russian military base in Belgorod as "intensive".
However, it was "of course not enough".
Most of the recruits have no military experience in a war zone, he said.
In their training, according to Ivan, they learned combat skills, storming and capturing buildings, working in a combat team, and providing medical care and evacuating and treating injured soldiers.
Ukraine-News: Russia disregards its own law - recruits receive extremely short training
This is probably only a fraction of what the young recruits need.
Russia is actually aware of this.
The law stipulates that recruits must be trained for at least four months before being deployed in the war.
The high losses in the Ukraine war are obviously forcing the Russian military to make extreme cutbacks.
"There is a great deal that needs to be learned in terms of team coordination and cooperation," British military expert Samuel Cranny-Evans told the
Moscow Times
.
However, this is very time-consuming.
But Kremlin boss Putin cannot afford lengthy training for recruits.
He urgently needs soldiers for his war of aggression.
(bb)
