“Our attack has stopped. We losing this war. “Half of our regiment is gone.” “They gave us order to kill everyone we see”. “I’ll leave when I get home.. fuck the army”. “(Vladimir Putin he is a fool. He wants us to take Kiev, but there’s no way we can do that.”
Five sentences pronounced call to family, couples and friends Who are the Russian soldiers in Russia MarchThey were relocated to the area near Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, weeks after the Kremlin began its invasion of Ukraine. had possessedlike thousands of other phone calls, ukrainian government. And this Wednesday, after months of research, translation, and verification of its originality, “The New York Times” made it public as part of a report revealing the content. frustration and disenchantment Troops questioning and simultaneously recognizing decisions taken by both the Russian president and military leaders savagery committed against civilians and also spoil.
The ‘Times’ explained that by hiding the names of the recipients and only giving the first names of the Russian soldiers, some words in cell phone conversations that they are not authorized could be punished with imprisonment in Russia. if they are publicly expressed.
“These bastards didn’t tell us anything”
Russian soldiers already suffered in the first weeks of the occupation low morale and, for example, they complained lack of equipment. They also claimed that they were deceived about the mission. “No one told us we were going to war, nothey warned you the day before”, Serguei told his mother that he had previously expressed the opinion that “this war is the stupidest decision the government has ever made.” “They teased us like children”, Nikita told a friend. “They told us we were going to practice.; these bastards did not tell us anything”, criticized Aleksei, speaking with his partner.
Soldiers were also interested in the issue during the talks. Official version events in Russia and they tore apart. For example, a man named Alexander said: “Actually, we can’t take kyiv we only take villages”. And in a conversation with his girlfriend, another named Sergei told him: “they want to fool people that everything is fine on TV, it’s just a special operationhowever it’s actually a goddamn war”.
war crimes
The human cost of this conflict was also revealed in speeches that spoke of both the fallen Russian soldiers and the civilian victims. And the calls dispel the version that the Bucha massacre was repeated by the Kremlin and they found after the retreat. More than 1,100 corpsesStaged to blame and point out Russia war crimes. For example, in one, soldier Sergei told his girlfriend that his commander had ordered the killing of three men who passed his warehouse.
“We stopped them, stripped them and checked their clothes. We had to decide whether to let them go, but if we did, they might expose our position. it was decided to shoot them in the forestsays the soldier. When the girlfriend asks if they’ve been shot, she replies, “Of course.” And when asked why they weren’t taken captive, he replies, “We had to feed them and we don’t have enough food for ourselves.”
Soldier Sergei also said that before they arrived they were told that there were many civilians and that “shoot everyone we see”. “Because they can reveal positions. It looks like this is what we’re going to do. Kill any civilian passing by and drag them into the forest. Already made me a murderer“, go on. “That’s why I don’t want to kill any more people, especially the ones I have to look into their eyes.”
Few soldiers speak openly about their call for possession. looted homes and businesses. And the ‘Times’ also confirmed that many of those apprehended made postal shipments to Russia days after the searches.