Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Mobilised Russians are stoically enduring appalling conditions on the front lines in Ukraine, without food or water and with endemic theft of their supplies and equipment by their own side. Meanwhile, many of their wives are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation. ⬇️

2/ A report by Radio Free Europe highlights the experiences of mobilised Russians fighting in Ukraine through the accounts of two families, one from north-west Russia and the other from the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals at the far eastern edge of Europe.

3/ Tatyana is the wife of a contract soldier named Sergei, who went to war voluntarily last July. She says that most Russian soldiers are, like her husband, simply looking to earn money to support their families and pay off their mortgages.

4/ "No one is fighting for the Motherland now," she says. "No matter who you ask, everyone goes there to improve the well-being of their family." Sergei is earning 200,000 rubles ($2,210) a month, three times his former civilian salary.

5/ However, much of the initial recruitment bonus was used up buying personal equipment at inflated prices. The soldiers also have to deal with endemic theft of their personal effects by their fellow soldiers, as Tatyana explains.

6/ "One guy had his warm tactical gloves stolen while he was on parade. Another guy's rucksack went missing with a new warm suit while he was on a mission. He came back from combat alive, but the rucksack was gone. He asked where it was, and they told him it had been burnt.

7/ "My husband had the same thing. He went on a mission, and when he came back, it was gone. Everything was stolen. Warm, good, woollen socks. The shaver I gave him. He kept it safe all the time.

8/ "And some people had their phones and money stolen on the trains when they were on their way to their unit. Some of them are still out of touch. You'd think they'd all work together, and then this happens. Their own stealing from their own. How can this be?"

9/ When the men got to the front line they lacked even shovels. "They just dropped them off in an empty field and let them do what they wanted. So my husband slept in a body bag.

10/ "He got into a sleeping bag that he brought from home, climbed into the body bag, zipped himself up, put a tube in his mouth and stuck it out through the slit so that he could breathe.

11/ "They don't get anything out there. No gloves, no warm underwear, no ammunition. They didn't even give them shovels. But they did give them body bags."

12/ Theft and supply problems also affect parcels of 'humanitarian aid' sent from home to the front line. Only two such parcels have reached Sergei since July. The soldiers have to rely on medicines and medical supplies sent from home, as there is nothing at the front line.

13/ "My husband said that it was only there that he understood what bread was," Tatyana says. Bread and water are "worth its weight in gold" and are rationed because of the lack of supplies. "They will be thrown to the front line for two or three weeks, and survive as you will."

14/ A great many don't survive. According to Tatyana, out of 300 men in her husband's unit, all but 18 were killed, injured or went missing in only three months – a 94% casualty rate. The men are not rotated but are kept at the front until they die or are too injured to fight.

15/ Tatyana says: "After the first mission, the survivors were promised rest from two weeks to 45 days, but they were deceived. After just four days, they were sent to the front line for three weeks. And without any technology at all.

16/ "All the equipment [armour] was bombed in the first battle, and they still can't find the crewmen. No body - no case. The family will receive nothing.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1727248667143483489

17/ "One of my husband’s colleagues has shrapnel in his head, another has torn knee ligaments, someone’s arms are broken, one can't bend his back, and another can't see. And there are also all sorts of related diseases. Prostatitis, hemorrhoids, pneumonia. It's constant pain.

18/ "Some people have incontinence because of prostate inflammation. But they don't even send you to rehab for your wounds. Soldiers write reports, and their superiors just tear them up. They say you're a fuckup, not a report. Commanders want to send them to the front line again.

19/ "I consulted a lawyer, asking what to do? He said just fall down and say that you can't go. But there you can fall down or not fall down. They'd lift you up, throw you in a vehicle and take you to the front line.

20/ "My husband says they take them out like meat. He says that if they are sent on a mission again in such a state, it will definitely be his last trip."

21/ Despite their difficulties, the soldiers are nonetheless determined to continue fighting and believe the propaganda that they are defending Russia. Tatyana says that "nobody's going anywhere. They're all willing to move on. And they will move on. Because they are men."

22/ She says that the soldiers simply need to “exhale”, “heal”, to be ready again to return to the front. "I think it's inherent in every man. They understand their responsibility. They will go on to the end. My husband says, "I'll get better and then go back to my boys."

23/ Their wives share information with each other on chat forums but are afraid of complaining, in case those in authority take revenge on their loved ones.

"Some women believe that all bells should be rung, while others ask not to write anything anywhere.

24/ "Like, suddenly those who complain will be shot by their own commanders and blamed on the war. Or, they say, there is some place called Zaitseve, and they are sent there for punishment.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1671253659668344832

25/ "It's like a prison. They lock you up, they don't feed you, they beat you up. You know, abuse you. Lord, we live in the 21st century, we're not fascists, how can they abuse us like that?"

26/ Vladimir Lobanov from Karpinsk in the Sverdlovsk region was severely injured in October 2022, less than a month after being mobilised. He spent a week in hospital with shrapnel embedded in his body, but it was not removed and he was returned to his unit.

27/ When Vladimir turned 50 in September 2023, he was entitled to a discharge on the grounds of age. But this didn't happen. His wife Olesya says: "Just before his birthday they offered him a contract. He didn't sign. But they said: if you don't sign a contract, you go to combat.

28/ "And on 21st September, instead of going home, he was transferred to another unit. When he filed a report in the other unit, he was told that the laws did not apply in the zone of the Special Military Operation."

29/ Each combat mission lasts from 8 to 16 days, with a maximum of four days' rest. The fragments in his neck, chest and groin are bothering him, but he doesn't particularly complain because he says "there are guys out there in worse situations."

30/ Olesya has been campaigning for her husband to be released and has written to everyone in authority from Putin downwards. However, she says, the results are always the same: requests are "redirected down the chain of command, where they simply disappear". /end

Source:
severreal.org/a/za-rodinu-se…