As of: February 5, 2024, 4:28 a.m
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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Doubts about the mission: Russian soldiers are asking more and more openly in private conversations about the meaning of their role in the Ukraine war, while the Russian army's losses are growing indefinitely.
© IMAGO/Alexander Reka
Russia's soldiers are protesting against being burned to death - they are looking for the meaning of the war.
They are continually disappointed by their officers.
Avdiivka – The war is said to have ended on February 24th;
Maria almost couldn't believe her ears.
But Ukraine's wiretapping expert (name is a pseudonym) got it right: "Well, there are rumors that we are going home early, even though everything here may last until February 24th," said the voice that had previously identified himself as a high-ranking officer.
The
Kiev Post
is now reporting on a wiretapped phone call between two soldiers from Russia in which the sentence was uttered.
The quiet rebellion among Vladimir Putin's troops deployed in the Ukraine war is becoming louder.
In the recorded phone call, reported by the
Kiev Post
, the soldier complained that he and his comrades had been sent on a suicide mission by their commanders, who later arrested him because he complained about the incident.
In the conversation published by Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR), the man tells his friend Sanya that his company was caught in the middle of withering Ukrainian fire because they lacked the artillery needed to counterattack.
Machine guns and mortars: Russian soldiers trapped
“On one side of the quarry, machine guns;
on the other side, drones and two damn mortars.
The Ukrainians began to hit us from two sides.
They totally kicked our asses.
Non-stop fire from literally everywhere;
We run back and forth like idiots.
Nobody knows where to go.
It was a total catastrophe” – the recording of the Russian infantryman’s phone call in the
Kiev Post
is shocking in itself.
But the unknown soldier tells his comrade Sanya something even more significant.
The soldier turned to his battalion commander and apparently asked who was to be held responsible for the criminal order and why they had been refused permission to recover the bodies of fallen comrades near Avdiivka - which is said to have ultimately earned him a few days of arrest;
However, the battalion commander was also the one who had expressed to him the suspicion that the war would end quickly;
This is also already a criminal offense in the Russian army.
Disobeying orders or defeatism are now punished with ten to 15 years in prison.
Putin's death toll: Ukraine expects almost 400,000 Russian soldiers to die
Markus Reisner analyzed Russia's dilemma in the magazine
Sirius
: Strong infantry is necessary to be able to accompany and protect the advancing mechanized forces.
This applies especially to the heavy urban fighting in Mariupol, Popasna, Marinka and Bakhmut.
The Russian armed forces are trying to master this challenge by continually introducing mobilized soldiers.
Against the current Russian defensive weakness, the Ukrainian side is trying to maintain the lead gained through the counter-offensives near Kharkiv and Kherson.
Russian troops are gradually bleeding out, without this war of attrition allowing individual soldiers to recover.
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On the contrary, this is the current tactic of the Ukrainian army, as the German political scientist Carlo Masala told the
Hamburger Abendblatt
using the example of Avdiivka: “I expect the Ukrainians will soon tactically give up the city of Avdiivka.
Because the real purpose of holding Avdiivka for so long was to destroy as much Russian material and as many Russian troops as possible.”
Ukrainian authorities currently estimate that there are almost 400,000 Russian dead.
According to unconfirmed information from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia has up to 25 million reservists.
By 2026, the regular army is expected to grow by around 400,000 to 1.5 million soldiers.
Beating by Russian officers: The enemy is within our own ranks
Andreas Rüesch points out the human image of the Russian military leadership in the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
: “Russia treats its troops like dirt – as soldiers who are expendable goods.” This in turn gives the defenders an enormous psychological boost, explains Reisner: “The motivation is the troops President Volodymyr Zelensky has an advantage, as the course of the war has shown.
After all, the men and women in the Ukrainian army defend their homes and the lives of their families - they know exactly what they are fighting for.
Experts are unanimously certain that Russia’s soldiers on the front line have little use for Vladimir Putin’s war aims.”
Christian Göbel, lieutenant colonel in the reserve at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam, asked
in the Bundeswehr podcast
: “Unfortunately, in Russia, for example, there is still the so-called “Dedowtschina” (“rule of the grandfathers”), which describes the extreme harassment of younger by older soldiers;
Officers also mistreat subordinates, there is the violent regime in general and soldiers mistreat each other;
Cadaver obedience should be beaten into place." In this context, Göbel quotes the former Russian reserve officer and current author Mikhail Schischkin: "The Russian army was and remains a 'school of slaves' in which older soldiers have practically unlimited power over new recruits," as Shishkin writes.
Despite Putin's propaganda: The Russians want an end to the war - on their terms
Ukraine's Military Intelligence (HUR) regularly releases clips of intercepted calls that provide a revealing and often shocking glimpse into the conditions facing Russian soldiers on the front lines.
Many describe the destruction of entire units through senseless attacks.
Some phone calls discuss incidents in which soldiers who are not up to the war retreat on their own - desert.
Every second Russian is now skeptical about the official news about the course of the military operation, claims Artemij Vvedensky, founder of the independent opinion research group
Russian Field
, to the
Tagesschau
.
In general, says Vvedensky, a certain level of fatigue is setting in.
For the first time, more respondents were in favor of peace talks than in favor of continuing the military operation.
“People want it to end,” Vvedensky said.
However – this can also be seen from the surveys – not at the expense of Russia.
Only a minority would support an unconditional deduction, says the pollster.
Other conversations also reveal the discrepancy between the real war situation and what Russian soldiers believe to be true.
A wiretapped phone call between a Russian soldier and his mother suggests that the soldiers are being conditioned for a long-term mission, as the soldier candidly reports: “Basically they are telling us that this crazy situation will last until 26.
Russia will 'take back territories'.”
(Karsten Hinzmann)