Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian soldiers say hundreds of their number are being killed trying to retake newly liberated Andriivka. Even artillerymen are being sent in as infantry in 'meat assaults', "literally [armed] with shovels" and without artillery support. ⬇️

2/ The Russian Army's 94th regiment is said to be taking the brunt of the fighting as Ukrainian forces advance south of Bakhmut. The wife of one soldier serving with the regiment, a man called Denis, says they are suffering huge casualties.

3/ "He called on Thursday and said that the Ukrainian armed forces were taking Andriiivka and breaking through to Bakhmut," his wife Vera says.

4/ "And they are being thrown into Andriiivka with almost no weapons. He said: roughly speaking, we are coming at them with shovels and no artillery support. There is nowhere to retreat, because behind them are our own men, who will not spare them either.

5/ "Six hundred didn't return from their missions. And all this in just two days. And the official reports tell us that only two or three people were killed."

6/ Posts on Telegram say that the men are experiencing very heavy incoming fire: "the enemy does not stop attempting a breakthrough using cluster munitions." Denis himself says that "the 94th Regiment is being zeroed out [killed] ... our regiment is here to be put down."

7/ He says that its commander, a man named Zaitsev with the callsign 'Rapira', told the men explicitly that they were there to die. "He's a local, either from the DNR or the LNR. We're his third regiment. He left two regiments here, he said that "I'll leave you here too"."

8/ Denis compares Zaitsev unfavourably to his previous commander, who he says was a more humane man. "Our last commanding officer got us out of it. That's what got him fired. That he didn't send his men out to be butchered."

9/ He confirms that there were originally a thousand men in the regiment but their numbers have been reduced to 400 by the constant fighting. "We are constantly thrown into the area of Andriivka, which is processed by the AFU artillery. Basically, we are driven there for meat.

10/ "You give the coordinates to our artillery, what targets we need to work on. And the artillery does not work, because they have no shells." (It's possible that the artillery itself may have been destroyed – Ukraine has been targeting it heavily – rather than lacking shells.)

11/ Coordination with the artillery has broken down, according to Denis. "There's no co-operation with anyone else. Everything is very slow – either the artillery doesn't fire or you have to wait a long time for a shot."

12/ Now the men are being sent on 'meat assaults' which they are not expected to survive. "The orders are to take over [Andriivka], take what's left of it. Rubble, to put it crudely.

13/ "Although [the commanders] themselves know very well, and there is video confirmation, that the enemy is constantly working throughout the village. The AFU artillery is working constantly. They send men into the village, but they will not let them come out.

14/ "This is perfectly well known to everyone. And when you tell the command that this is exactly what is happening in this direction, you are answered "so what?" That's a quote: "So what?""

15/ Retreat is impossible, according to Denis, because commanders have positioned 'blocking units' behind the front line to shoot any retreaters. The men believe that they will be killed whatever happens, by one side or the other.

16/ Denis says that the men "are not in the mood to die for nothing. If there is artillery support, co-operation with other units, and there is no ammunition famine, then everyone is ready to fight. But nobody wants to fight like this."

17/ He blames the commanders' insistence on ordering obviously suicidal attacks on their false claims that they have not in fact lost control of Andriivka. It's likely they've also made such claims to their superiors, in another example of the Russian military's culture of lying.

18/ "They tell us in plain words: go and get a foothold there. And we see that our positions there have not been ours for a long time, so we raise a "bird" [drone]. In fact, it is obvious to the naked eye that our positions there have long since ceased to be ours.

19/ "But the command claims that they are.

"We've got 25 men going out on a mission, six coming back. Now we have artillerymen going to the assault. They were told – you don't have ammunition anyway, go with the infantry. And the guys don't know what an assault is.

20/ "Information about our situation does not go anywhere upstairs, it is overridden somewhere on the middle level. That's why we're trying to get the word out now. It's not a good idea to just send people to slaughter.

21/ "Soldiers from other units who don't know us, if you give them our regiment number, they say: "Guys, you are being nullified. That's the way it is."

His wife Vera says that the soldiers and their relatives are afraid to go public with their concerns about the situation.

22/ She says that her mother-in-law "wrote to the group of mothers and wives of the mobilised 94th regiment that our guys are in a difficult situation. That they have no weapons. And she suggested that this information should be "spread" on social networks.

23/ "And everyone jumped on her: don't, they say, don't set everyone up. They're more worried about their salaries than their husbands. They are worried that if the names of the rebels come to light, they will simply be made "missing" and will not receive any payments."

24/ Vera doesn't blame them for this attitude. "I also understand those who are afraid of publicity. If now defamatory information from my husband goes out, if his surname gets publicised, he will simply be recognised as an enemy of the people.

25/ "And then this status will automatically go to the children. My husband is also afraid that it will affect my son."

26/ At home, reports Radio Freedom, "little Fedya, sitting on his mum's lap, taps his finger on the phone. On the screen saver is a picture of a young man with his son on his shoulders."

27/ "Daddy," says the boy.

"Yes, Daddy," Vera nods. "I don't want my son to know his father only from pictures."

Denis's family have not heard from him since his interview on 16 September. On 17 September, Ukraine announced the recapture of Andriivka. /end

Source:
svoboda.org/a/nas-kidayut-…