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A lone soldier on patrol in the Kherson region
Photo: RIA Novosti/SNA/IMAGO
Pawel Filatiew was involved as a paratrooper in the Russian war against Ukraine, including the capture of the city of Cherson.
In a diary he recorded his frustration at the experiences of the war.
He published his collected entries in a book.
The »Guardian« spoke to the man, who has meanwhile fled his homeland, and has published further excerpts from his work, which has not yet been fully translated.
In »ZOV«, Filiatiev not only describes the lack of equipment and organization in the Russian army, but also his growing disgust at the war that his country has started.
"Have you ever seen the pictures of the sack of Rome by the barbarians?" the author writes on March 1, 2022, the day his unit captured the port of the city of Cherson.
»We were like savages«
“That's the best way to describe what was happening around me.
Everyone looked exhausted and feral, and we all began combing the buildings in search of food, water, a shower, and a place to sleep;
some began taking computers and whatever valuable goods they could find.«
It goes on: »We ate everything there was like savages: oatmeal, porridge, jam, honey, coffee ... We didn't give a damn, we were already at the end of our strength.
Most had spent a month in the fields without a shred of comfort, a shower or normal food.”
From the very beginning of his mission, Filiatiev was apparently surprised at the lack of organization in the Russian army.
"What a wild state people can be driven into if you don't think about their need to sleep, eat and wash," he writes.
»Everything around us made us feel bad;
we were just trying to survive like wretches.”
At the beginning of the campaign he was only given summer clothes and no headgear, and his rifle was also rusted.
His unit and he initially received little information about the operation.
The 34-year-old told the Guardian that it took him weeks to "realize that there was no war on Russian territory, we just attacked Ukraine."
Soldiers wound themselves
According to the former paratrooper, as general frustration at the front increased, soldiers shot themselves to escape the front lines and collect compensation for wounded.
In some cases, however, like relatives of fallen comrades, they would wait several months for their payments.
"I'm not afraid to fight in the war," Filiatiev tells the Guardian.
"But I need the feeling of justice, the feeling that what I'm doing is right." Filiatiev was withdrawn from the front due to an eye infection.
He decided not to return to the front.
“Most people in the army are dissatisfied with what is going on there, they are dissatisfied with the government and its commanders, they are dissatisfied with Putin and his policies, they are dissatisfied with the defense minister who never served in the army has," writes Filiatiev in his book.
According to Russian activist Vladimir Osechkin, Filiatiev is the first soldier to flee Russia for speaking out against the war.
For the head of the organization Gulagu.net, which campaigns for the rights of prisoners in Russia, this has "opened Pandora's box".
It is important that someone raised their voice first, said Osechkin.
Since he went public, his entire unit has broken off contact with him, Filiatiev tells the Guardian.
However, he believes that 20 percent of them fully supported his protest.
And many others have told him in conversations that they grudgingly respect the patriotism of Ukrainians who are fighting to defend their own territory.
"I'm scared of what happens next," the report quotes the 34-year-old as saying.
“What are we going to pay for this?
Who will be left in our country?
What have we become?
And how can it get any worse?”
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