A Russian soldier from the Moscow’s 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade has described how troops in his unit, many suffering from serious illnesses such as tuberculosis and HIV, were thrown into fighting on the front lines and used as “cannon fodder.”
In an intercepted call released by Ukraine's Defense Military Intelligence (HUR), the man accuses his military commanders of pointlessly causing the deaths of their men with their orders.
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Describing the accusations to an unidentified person, he says: “And the fact that you lost the whole f**king company there, you killed them all, b**tards with messed-up fantasies, stupidly threw them in as meat, as cannon fodder.”
He goes on to say that many military personnel who have been called up for duty in the Southern Military District are serious ill, this includes himself who has HIV.
“So here are 16 people who have hepatitis, suspected tuberculosis, lung disease, tumours in their heads.
“HIV – there are two more like that,” the soldier says.
“And at that time, the temperature started to rise to forty degrees, f**k; in short, my immune system went astray; I said, f**k, well, this is the HIV.”
As he continues, he claims that those who survived the front lines are later released to the Reserve without receiving any financial support.
"Two days later, some random guy came, I had never seen him before. He says: ‘Guys, if you write a report now that you have no complaints against the top leadership of this new battalion then you, he says, are going home now. But keep in mind, you will not see the salary for January.’
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"Well, I think - f**k it, I wasn’t going to receive it anyway. They shouted at me in Novotoretsky village that I was getting a penalty and I would be thrown back to the front."
Discord over the war's duration and intensity appears to be growing among Russian soldiers.
In a number of conversations recently intercepted by HUR, they discuss ways to give up serving and avoid further deployment to the frontline while, at home, civilians panic about being conscripted.
In one instance a Russian soldier was overheard in an intercepted phone call describing how half a battalion of Moscow’s troops refused orders and now “are just sitting around in the forest, not fighting.”In another case, they were complaining about not being given leave for almost two years and saying that “soon we'll gather a crowd and head towards Russia.”
Back in December of 2023, Alexander Shpilevoy, mobilized from Voronezh, recorded a video calling for the rotation of military personnel and an end to the war in Ukraine.
Three weeks later, it was revealed that he had been confined to a penal guards' facility – basically a punishment pit – in the Luhansk region.
Earlier this year, Kyiv Post interviewed Maria* who works as one of Ukrainian intelligence’s professional eavesdroppers and spoke about the shocking things she hears.
Russia regularly dismisses the content of intercepted calls published by Ukraine, saying they are faked - a claim Kyiv Post put to Maria. She said: “Yes, they all are real even though they might seem insane. Sometimes I can’t believe the words I’m hearing myself, but we have what we have.”
Kyiv Post regularly reposts some of the most revealing and shocking intercepted conversations.
You can read some of them in the links below:
- 'Half a Battalion Escaped to The Forest' – Russian Soldier Blamed for Mass Refusal to Fight
- ‘The Assault Failed, Everyone Was Killed’ – Russian Soldier Reveals Horrific Losses, Possibly at Avdiivka
- '150,000 Men Will Be Thrown In’ – Russian Soldier Reveals Fears of ‘Huge’ Ukrainian Crimea Liberation Force
- 'We Lost 600 Men’ – Russian Reveals Horrific Losses and Behavior On Frontlines
- ‘All Our Guys Were Slaughtered’ – Intercepted Phone Calls Suggest Huge Russian Losses
- ‘He Started Shooting Us!’ – Intercepted Phone Call Reveals Russian Friendly Fire Incident
- ‘We’ll Tear You Apart’ – Ukrainian Soldiers Are Trolling Russian Commanders on Telegram
- ‘War Until 2026’ - Russian Soldier Claims He’s Been Told To Expect 3 More Years of Fighting
- ‘Trucks Full of Corpses’ – Intercepted Phone Call Suggests Massive Wagner Losses
- ‘All Our Boys Are Rotting’– Intercepted Phone Call Suggests Heavy Russian Casualities Near Antonivsky Bridge
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