Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

Ukraine's @SvobodaRadio (Radio Liberty) has published some interesting extracts from a talk by the acting commander of the Russian 41st Army, Colonel Oleg Korotkevich, to the families of soldiers from the 35th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade.

The talk took place in Aleysk, Altai Krai - one of Russia's territories in western Siberia. Bear in mind that what follows is extracts from a longer talk, so there's likely to be a lot of context missing.

I'm also nowhere near as good at translating this stuff as the redoubtable @mdmitri91, so apologies in advance for any errors. Translation follows.

KOROTKEVICH: What can we do? Everything that has been done, all in vain? ... Because our state, like a beaten dog, will have to leave from [Ukraine], do you understand? We just can’t afford it, no matter how hard it is.

THESE ARE FRAGMENTS OF THE TALK BY OLEG KOROTKEVICH, ACTING COMMANDER OF THE 41ST ARMY

IN ALEYSK, THE COLONEL MET WITH FAMILIES OF SERVICEMEN FROM THE 35TH BRIGADE

HE TOLD WHY THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION "CANNOT LEAVE" UKRAINE, ABOUT REFUSENIKS AND BOARDS OF SHAME

KOROTKEVICH: Can our president, between you and me, say on TV tomorrow: "That's it, I've decided to stop the special operation."

Can he? He's the Commander-in-Chief, of course he can. But what can we do? Everything that has been done, all in vain?

Now. All the nationalism [in Ukraine] that's left undefeated, it'll just come to us in a year, we'll just be [fighting] here in a year.

We will be [fighting] here: in Aleysk, in Novosibirsk, in Tomsk, in Tyumen, in Moscow, everywhere.

Because our state, like a beaten dog, will have to leave from there [Ukraine], do you understand? We just can’t afford it, no matter how hard it is.

THERE WERE ABOUT 3500 MEN IN THE 35TH BRIGADE BEFORE THE WAR, BY JUNE OVER 260 REFUSED TO FIGHT

KOROTKEVICH: 261 discharged, 134 of them expelled.

What do we mean by expelled from the unit?

All payments have been stopped. No combat veterans will get their combat veteran's credentials.

And we should 'know our own', in inverted commas.

[Question from the audience]: Can I ask you, is there a board of shame?

[translator's note: see the thread below about the use of 'boards of shame']

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1546412031267540992

KOROTKEVICH: There's a board of shame, but it's in the subdivisions. We're not putting it up in the city yet.

But we'll put it up, believe me, and we'll know everyone who's a disgrace, just like we'll know each of our heroes.

There's a man sitting in Barnaul, for example.

Ready, normal, strong, healthy, plans to do short-term military service under contract, to earn money, as they call it.

He opens the Internet and reads all the information there is about the Aleysk Brigade, all the information there is about the Yurga Brigade, for example.

I'm telling you that their roles are almost the same. We carry out tasks in the same districts, regions, or whatever you want to call them, but in the background of your reports, the negativity that's going on, people just don't go.

They freak out and change their minds in favour of the Yurga Brigade [likely the 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, based in Yurga, Kemerovo oblast].

[translator's note: Korotkevich presumably means recruits won't want to serve in the 35th Bde if its members won't fight]

KOROTKEVICH ALSO EXPLAINED WHY THE BODIES OF 19 SOLDIERS KILLED DURING THE CROSSING OF THE SIVERSKYI DONETS CANNOT BE RECOVERED [likely referring to the disastrous attempt to cross the river at Bilohorivka in May 2022]

In order to [pull out] a soldier who died in a combat zone, you just have to go into the area and find the place where he died.

Was he killed in the crossing or before the crossing, did something happen in the vehicle?

It should be guaranteed to be our territory. Right now the area of the former crossing is not under our control. That's one point.

The second point concerns the families of the missing. In this case, orders are issued for the missing, special notices are handed in, because life has to go on anyway.

First of all, the wife gets his salary on the basis of these documents, until he is declared dead.

ACCORDING TO KOROTKEVICH, THE 35TH BRIGADE IS NOW IN THE SECOND [i.e. rear] ECHELON, AND THE SOLDIERS ARE GIVEN LEAVE

KOROTKEVICH: One military commander, another military commander is responsible for some problems, I'm trying to say it correctly, he threatened [to disband the brigade], but it's just a threat, that's all.

Now on a global scale what's going on, there's fighting on the territory of another country, between two countries, that's what everybody thinks.

In fact there is a war going on with almost the entire NATO bloc.

The only thing is that the NATO bloc is fighting with the blood of the Ukrainian people.

They are being brainwashed, and then they are sent to the front.

MORE THAN 4,800 CIVILIANS HAVE ALREADY DIED AS A RESULT OF THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
/end