Russia has deployed thousands of inexperienced and ill-equipped soldiers into the war against Ukraine. Captured Russian soldiers are waiting to die or be jailed at home. The occupiers are carefully burning the bodies of their dead soldiers in mobile crematoria, which they wisely took to hide the number of losses in the war, which they refer to as “a special operation” or “special mission” at times.
Stories about the “liberation of Ukrainians from Nazism” have given many Russians hope that the war in Ukraine will be short-lived. Instead, the occupiers were met with a resounding defeat on all fronts, not only by the military but also by the civilian Ukrainian population.
The aggressor was caught off guard by mass enrollment in the Territorial Defense, volunteerism, and protests supporting Ukraine in the temporarily occupied Russian military cities.
“Professional Military Only”
The Russian Federation’s leadership and Armed Forces are working to ensure that the war in Ukraine is fought solely by professional soldiers and that the army has all the required equipment. However, as the war progresses, one thing becomes clearer: the “Second Army of the World” exists only in Russian propaganda, and thousands of untrained soldiers and cadets from military schools die in battle.
Many soldiers ordered to seize Kyiv in three days are conscripts, not contractees. This fact has been repeatedly stated in the Russian “Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia”, as evidenced by documents found in the captives and killed Russian servicemen. Some cases of participation of conscripts are also recognized in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. However, they significantly reduce the scale of the problem.
Logistical support of the Russian forces in Ukraine is also far from the promises of Russian generals and ministers.
The Russian invaders’ military reality includes obsolete Soviet-era weaponry, constant fuel and food shortages, expired 5 years ago dry goods, a lack of communication, and even a lack of essential clothing.
Russian propaganda claims that “humanitarian aid” is being sent to the people of the seized territories. However, due to a lack of nearly everything, Russians frequently turn to looting and stealing, ranging from bank safes to domestic animals.
«About 500 people died» or «Women are still giving birth»
The Russian Defense Ministry eventually published figures on their losses in Ukraine on March 2, a week after the war began, although the amount was drastically decreased.
At the same time, more than 14,000 Russian servicemen have been killed in the war against, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russia lost twice as many troops over the three weeks of the fight as it did throughout the First Chechen War.
The Russian army uses mobile crematoria where the dead bodies are burned to hide the actual losses among the military. Most Russian soldiers’ corpses are brought to morgues in occupied Crimea and Belarus’s Gomel region; their fates remain unclear.
«Russia doesn’t leave its own behind». It does so
Many dead Russian soldiers remain on the battlefield. Back to February 26, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help remove the bodies of killed Russian service members from Ukraine.
Mom, I’m full and warm in captivity
The fate of Russian war prisoners remains unknown to their relatives and friends. Roskomnadzor has blocked the telegram channel “Find your own”, created by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Russian soldiers’ parents and relatives often don’t realise they’re fighting in Ukraine. In Russia, they receive “death notices” of many prisoners of war and when they return, they will either be executed or put in prison for “betrayal of the nation.”
Despite the Russian slogan “We do not leave our own behind”, many Russian servicemen in Ukraine were simply left to die. Stalin’s principle “Women are still giving birth” has not disappeared, and Putin’s regime is ready to continue to send conscripts to war, leaving them without the essentials.
This is the true concern of the Russian Federation for its soldiers fighting in this war.
