The Russian war against Ukraine has already lasted 105 days. While Russia’s first large-scale offensive did not bring any notable success, the Russian troops can at least claim some territorial conquests after tactically concentrating on eastern Ukraine.
But these come at a high price. The number of killed and injured soldiers is also increasing on the Russian side. Exhaustion has now prompted some soldiers to voice their desperation and dissatisfaction despite the threat of reprisals.
In two videos, soldiers from Russian-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine speak up. In it they complain about the terrible conditions and the long service at the front, which is exhausting to the core. “Our personnel are confronted with hunger and cold,” fighters of the 113th regiment in Donetsk explain in a video. “For a significant period of time we had no supplies, medicines or food aid.” Many questions and problems, including health ones, were ignored by the superiors at the headquarters.
The lack of support would have even prompted a soldier to hire a lawyer. However, he wasn’t able to do much. After all, the general could keep him as a soldier in the regiment until his contract expires, explains Andrei, one of the soldiers, to the British Guardian. “I have been fighting in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. It’s been over three months now.”
He was initially stationed in Kyiv and Kharkiv, but is now further east in Ukraine. The soldier of the 37th Assault Rifle Brigade had not seen his wife since the beginning of his deployment. “It’s exhausting, my whole unit wants a break, but our leaders say they can’t replace us right now,” says Andrei.
The soldier’s statements are also consistent with the findings of researchers Michael Kofman and Rob Lee. In a new analysis of the possibilities of the Russian armed forces, they pointed out that the military is well designed primarily for short and high-intensity offensives with heavy artillery. However, the troops are “poorly designed” for a sustained occupation or a war of attrition. “The Russian military is unable to easily adapt its armed forces when a significant portion of combat capability is tied up in a war,” the report said.
Russia would often send soldiers into combat, especially in the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, even without military training. “Our mobilization was illegal, without medical certification,” another soldier complains in a video. 70 percent of the soldiers on site had previously been retired because they could not fight physically. “More than 90 percent have no combat experience and have seen a Kalashnikov for the first time. We were thrown to the front lines,” says the soldier from the 107th regiment in Donzek.
