Conditions for Russian troops being drafted to fight in Ukraine are so awful that many Russian men have fled the country. Between 200,000 and 600,000 have fled Russia to avoid being drafted, according to one of Russia’s provincial governors.
“What’s life like for newly-mobilised Russian troops in their barracks and temporary accommodation?,” asks a military historian. “Terrible, from all accounts, with no heating, no food, no sleeping bags, no hot water, no toilets, freezing tents, bedbug-infested mattresses and no training.”
Meanwhile, Russia wasted between $400 million and $700 million on pointless missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s cities. The attacks did no damage to Ukraine’s military, landing in civilian areas like a children’s playground.
“The independent Russian media outlet Verstka reports on the experiences of mobilised men from Ufa and Chelyabinsk, two major cities in west-central Russia. The family of one mobilised man named Semyon spent about 40,000 rubles ($625) to equip him for the war.”
“Semyon and others from the region were sent to a training centre in Elani near Yekaterinburg. To his shock, there were not enough beds and no food at all. He told his family that the only food the mobilised men had was what they had brought with them.”
“Those with more food were sharing with the hungry. ‘For two days no dry rations were given, not even a piece of bread each. It doesn’t make sense,’ Semyon said. They were subsequently taken to Rostov, where there was still no food.”
“The men were told they would not be getting any training and would be sent straight to Luhansk in Ukraine. Semyon asked his superiors for tactical gloves and a hunting knife. The knives given to the soldiers turned out to be blunt.”
“Two days later they were taken to Luhansk, where again there was no food. Semyon contacted his relatives to ask them to send him 4,000 rubles ($63) to buy food for himself.”
“Another soldier ended up in another military camp near the village of Popovka in Saratov region. On the first day, all the mobilised men were made to stand for several hours on the parade ground in the pouring rain while the commanders decided what to do with them.”
“The wet soldiers were assigned to barracks, but there were no stoves so the men could not dry their clothes and walked around in wet clothes. There were no showers, baths or hot water either. The barracks toilets also did not work.”
“Sleeping bags were not provided and the men slept on old, dirty mattresses infested with bedbugs.”
At another mobilization camp, “The mobilised men reportedly sleep on mattresses in their outer clothing, as no one was given sleeping bags. Thirty people are housed in each room. There are no showers, baths or hot water, so the men wash themselves with cold water.”
At yet “another mobilisation camp in Tatarstan, the men say they are living outdoors in large army tents. They were not given sleeping bags or mattresses. The men heat a small potbelly stove and sleep in outerwear on the wooden floor.”
“Very similar conditions are visible in … video from a mobilisation camp in Yugra, near Omsk. The narrator says that they have been given nothing, including uniforms and mattresses, so they are having to steal from others to survive.” A “recently mobilized Russian soldier shows his everyday life in the camp. They don’t receive anything, so to survive, they need to steal basic things like mattresses or wood stoves from others.”
“The men are receiving little or no training. Semyon from Chelyabinsk was sent immediately to Luhansk without any training. Maria from Ufa says that her husband’s group ‘are just wasting time. They walk around the territory of the unit, rest. They didn’t get any guidance.'”
Another report says that “of a group of 100 mobilized just 2 weeks ago, 80 are already dead. Russian population slowly figuring out that mobilized aren’t intended to fight, but merely to absorb expensive Ukrainian ammo.” Russian troops are the “definition of cannon fodder.” Many are “not even listed in the personnel of the military unit,” and are given no training, no food and equipment.
“Everyone is drunk. There are no uniforms. There is no food.” Testimonies from distraught relatives show that many more men already died soon after being called up, reports a leading Dutch newspaper, the Telegraph. “Russian corruption is so rampant their soldiers are sent to fight with rusty weapons, no sleeping bags, no food, etc.”
Russia recently suffered large casualties in Ukraine, and was forced out of some portions of Ukraine it previously occupied. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization, to draft 300,000 Russian men to fight in Ukraine. But many Russians have no desire to die in droves for Putin, the way many of Russia’s poorly-led and poorly-supplied soldiers already have perished in Ukraine. So thousands of Russian men are now fleeing Russia each week.
Last month, Ukraine’s forces launched a massive counterattack in the northeast of the country, reclaiming thousands of square miles of Russian-occupied land. Now, Putin is making noises about using nuclear weapons. And Ukraine is anticipating Russian retaliation, with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov saying he was expecting a counterattack. Russia responded to its losses with intense shelling of the region around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city. The city was left without electricity and water for a while as a result.
