This is a long-read story from a Russian mobilised soldier (mobik) covering the moral and psychological state of Russian mobiks in June 2024, which is marked by a pervasive loss of interest in the war's progress and goals. This detachment stems from a protective inhibition of the psyche, as the harsh realities and indefinite service life compel the brain to disconnect from the constant stress. Soldiers have largely tuned out war news, focusing instead on mundane tasks, personal interests, and issues at home, while enduring deteriorating living conditions, increased restrictions, and growing mental and physical health challenges. Humor has become dark and cynical, reflecting a grim resignation to their situation.
Starts here and is broken into parts similar to the original Telegram posts:
"MPS [morale and psychological state] and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 1, loss of interest in war
The first thing I want to start with is the loss of interest in the war and its course and goals. We just live at it.
The basis of this phenomenon is protective inhibition of the psyche. We don't know the exact service life, and the reality is disgusting. What does the brain do to maintain sanity? Breaks contact with the source of irritation.
We are not interested in the progress of battles any more than they bring us news from the front. Everyone focuses on the life of their unit and the life of their closest neighbors.
We turned off the radios with general information background.
We don’t ask, “How’s the frontline?” - we’re just told occasionally.
Most people do not read military telegram channels, especially those about military art and tactics. SMO news is read no more than once a week.
We simply do our job mechanically.
War already bursts into our lives in the form of the roar of its artillery, conversations about who and where the enemy FPV drones have knocked out on the roads, and the explosions of air defense missiles overhead. We try not to let more of this into everyday life.
Therefore, all the talk in the news about great goals and plans, the burning of this war, usually now, at this stage, causes grins and jokes of varying degrees of viciousness. Simple example:
- The news says that we will fight until complete victory over the hohols...
— With whom?)) Contract soldiers are fully refreshed once every 2-3 months, but we mobikss will run out in a year and a half)) It’s time for the General Staff to think about the “army of the dead” and combat necromancers 😁
What are we interested in instead of war?
Firstly, people use the Internet to do housework at home. Relatives do repairs, fix cars, take children to sports clubs and competitions. Our comrades are actively involved in all this - they give money, choose building materials, select work teams, etc.
Secondly, many have a lot of problems with loans and with relatives. Someone’s father/mother died, someone got divorced, someone’s evil aunt is trying to sue for their apartment. Or in the end, your beloved pet died or your bank card was blocked.
Thirdly, we watch TV series, films, anime. We organize matches in “Contra”, “Heroes of Might and Magic”. Others read books.
The fourth is everyday life. Washing, washing first of all, because you have to do a lot of fiddling with it all. Hey, our life here is similar to life in some African village - energy-saving mode of electricity consumption, constant blackouts, everything is dilapidated and flabby. You don’t have to sign up for the Afrika Korps, you can sign up for our SMO - the same as Rwanda, only from a different perspective) even poisonous reptiles in the forests are available. And Soviet architecture of the 1960-1980s as the maximum of civilization.
___
MPS and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 2, “It’s not getting better...”
...and in order for it not to get much worse, you have to work hard.
This general two-part phrase can describe most of the phenomena around us that are characteristic of trench warfare.
1) Let’s take the enemy’s means of destruction and the dynamics of their use. In January-May 2023, these were “HIMARS” flying to the rear, and at the front these were 155-mm Ukrainian shells.
Then the front experienced the pain from the mass of cluster shells when it was our turn to attack - from August 2023 to the end of February 2024.
Enemy drones made life difficult in our near rear back in July 2023. And drops from copters on positions on the front accounted for 50% of the daily attacks (17-25 per day) last October-November.
Since last December, FPV have been all the rage.
And what? Got better? No, it hasn’t gotten better for months, it’s just that the hohols have run out of cluster shells. But a lot of FPV drones appeared.
There was no fracture. We joke darkly about this:
“The goal of the Emperor’s guards is for the enemy to spend all their shells and drones on us.
2) Living conditions.
At first, we started living in houses in towns and cities. We rented for our own money or lived in abandoned buildings. Yes, it was dangerous. But it's comfortable. Were they able to protect us from the waiters who passed our locations? No. Were you able to organize the placement of equipment in a smart way? No.
We were simply all evicted into forest belts and fields. Where we built our comfort-plus dugouts for the first time. The dugout is worse than the house. The only plus is that from the air it is not clear who lives where. It got a little better. Traded comfort for safety.
However, with the beginning of the offensive, everyone began to move and they had to hastily build cramped dugouts, or live in those inherited from other units. Over the winter it all leaked and became moldy. I had to work hard to play with minimal comfort. But it's still worse than it was. Drones also make you hide. It has become worse compared to what it was in January 2023.
I recently heard from one of the staff members reminiscing about how well they lived in Izyum and the surrounding area in 2022 compared to today. The story ends ironically:
- ...then, of course, we handed over everything and abandoned everything, but what a thrill it was in the houses and with freedom of movement.
3) Supply.
It has gotten better, but since we have moved into an area without settlements (or they have been destroyed), we have to rely on state-supplied food. Plus, due to strict restrictions on movement, there are problems with going to the shops - not everyone, as before, can afford it.
Therefore, state-provided supplies have become better, but access to stores has become worse. Mediocre, especially compared to last summer.
4) Enslavement.
In January-February 2023, we drove wherever we wanted within the Zone and in whatever we wanted. We could go shopping and exchange cash so that we would have something to buy food with, while armed to the teeth.
For more than a year, the military police and the VAI [military vehicle inspection] had firmly established themselves in the middle rear and blocked all roads leading from the front. Any departure is only according to the combat task, including with an exact indication of the weapon and the amount of ammunition. VAI officers control and report on everything, including whether the driver and passengers in the cab are wearing seat belts. Last winter, cars were detained and the maintenance documentation was completely checked - I even saw a detained BM-21 Grad at the checkpoint. Only recently were the VAI officers pushed further away, but for several months they made our life difficult.
Naturally, personal transport could be subject to arrest. Just like the military personnel who were not registered in the combat tasks, I thought of going quickly to the store, but ended up in the commandant’s office.
Abandonment of positions by new contract soldiers and refusals have not gone away, so in addition to restricting movements on roads, specific orders from commanders appeared to prohibit travel outside the deployment areas and regular roll calls of large units.
There is less freedom of maneuver, and the stress from the course of service became greater. The feeling that you are serving your sentence in a prison zone, with several rings of security.
It got worse.
____
5) Complicated going on vacation.
This is like a special case of enslavement and logistics.
I do not know the reasons why cars from the Moscow Military District were prohibited from traveling further than Urazovo, along a short route. That is, purchasing building materials for dugouts has to be done with a triple twist (to put it without swearing).
Added to this was a ban on MMO vacationers traveling through checkpoints in the Belgorod region. And now you have to spend at least 6 hours to leave the Zone, + 11-13 hours to get to Moscow.
Why this was done, I don’t know. It got worse.
6) Physical and mental health.
For most, both have only gotten worse. I described this above and described it earlier - stress, hard life, monotonous work, alcohol, tobacco, energy drinks, coffee do not make anyone stronger.
Lately, I have often heard mentions of the appearance of nervous breakdowns and recording of progress in mental disorders - bipolar, hysterics, fits of anger, apathy.
Against this background, our physical education group looks like an oasis - there are already about 7 of us involved in strength training with varying degrees of involvement. The guys (and I) go to great lengths to preserve both our minds and our bodies this way. And it works.
But the people around us are getting worse. We live from month to month - hoping to live to see a rotation, otherwise the first wave of mobs will end up with disabilities of various groups.
7) Groundhog Day.
It hasn't gone away, it's only gotten worse.
The same wheel of worries every day: work, meals, bathing, laundry. Highlights: sports, Counter Strike match. Military highlights include the passage of an enemy drone, which is shot at by everyone who can, because it’s just boring.
That's all. Nothing else usually happens in everyday military life. But now we are much more enslaved, and you consider it lucky to escape from your place of confinement on a work trip (to repair a truck, for example).
And long-term existence in enslavement and in Groundhog Day gives rise to a partial restoration of the medieval worldview:
- Fatalism.
— The vanity of everything that exists around.
— Fierce work to improve immediate life.
8) Feeling like an endangered species.
There are much fewer of us mobs after the October-March offensive period. Our particular regiment can no longer be called a “regiment of mobs,” alas. More than 50% are new contract soldiers.
Many new faces appeared. In neighboring parts too. One day in the spring I crossed paths with a volunteer from BARS. After the conscription service, the guy signed up to fight in a corporate PMC. When he heard that I had already served 19-20 months of mobilization, his eyes bulged - he himself only spent a month in the war)))
Communicating with the new contract soldiers, you feel like a mammoth. The only cooler people than us are the pre-war full-time contract soldiers - they're basically dinosaurs.
And these are not good feelings at all. Watch Lafayette Escadrille or Aces in the Sky (1976). These are the feelings - there were 5 “old men” and 1 “young man”, and after a few weeks there was only one “old man” and one ironic refusenik.
When you meet brother mobs, you rejoice in belonging to them. And at the same time, you acutely worry about the death or elimination of anyone you’ve lost so far.
Last spring we buried a good friend who had been written off as “unnecessary” to the assault company. He would have turned 47 this year; we knew each other from Belarus.
Several others were transferred due to injuries and illnesses. New unfamiliar faces appeared.
It's bad to feel like you're going extinct.
____
MPS and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 3, some conclusions about MPS mobs and other military personnel
The above is our intoxicating reality, in which we have been living for 21 months now and about 17-18 months in the Zone.
Yes, that's exactly what it looks like. Almost no joy. Sucking vitality. Who thought that war was cool, dynamic and like in “Call of Duty”, I will disappoint you. This is exactly what it looks like.
Remark: at the zero line, the assault troops have their own wheel of fortune - assault, injury, hospital, recovery, back into service... And so on until they lose their fitness for service in the stormtroopers and are transferred to the rear, or until death. It is almost impossible to resign under the Military Commission with the current rules for assessing the health of military personnel in the SMO - except for paying a bribe for 400K+ rubles.
Therefore, in general, during these 21 months we have become very gloomy people. Many people's eyes have gone dark - do you know this expression? Watch films about big wars, like the Finnish “The Unknown Soldier” from 2017. There is a mask of fatigue and sadness on the face.
Our humor has become malicious and hopeless. I gave an example:
- Brother, when is demobilization?
- 100 years later. Conditions for demobilization: 50 years at the front, 50 years in the rear, marry a local Ukrainian, give birth to 3 sons, 2 of whom will be designated as new contract soldiers. And you will be allowed to send only one to Russia, but he will be raised by the state in the “Youth Army”.
We no longer respect most politicians in all countries of the world. Of all the positive ones who have ever been mentioned, I remember only Comrade Stalin and Lenin. And normal generals, like Zhukov or Rokossovsky. Suvorov and Kutuzov from pre-revolutionary history were also mentioned.
In conversations, there was clearly a division between “you there in Russia” and “us here in the Zone.”
Otherwise, we're just surviving. So the day has passed again - and to hell with it.
From vacation to vacation.
A note for hohols: everything described above fully applies to you. Extend this to yourself - Muscovites are not going to leave, cemeteries are replenished, then one military resource (like shells for some systems) of the NATO owners will dry up, then another. The Russian Armed Forces are slowly advancing to the west. You're not getting any better."
Starts here and is broken into parts similar to the original Telegram posts:
"MPS [morale and psychological state] and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 1, loss of interest in war
The first thing I want to start with is the loss of interest in the war and its course and goals. We just live at it.
The basis of this phenomenon is protective inhibition of the psyche. We don't know the exact service life, and the reality is disgusting. What does the brain do to maintain sanity? Breaks contact with the source of irritation.
We are not interested in the progress of battles any more than they bring us news from the front. Everyone focuses on the life of their unit and the life of their closest neighbors.
We turned off the radios with general information background.
We don’t ask, “How’s the frontline?” - we’re just told occasionally.
Most people do not read military telegram channels, especially those about military art and tactics. SMO news is read no more than once a week.
We simply do our job mechanically.
War already bursts into our lives in the form of the roar of its artillery, conversations about who and where the enemy FPV drones have knocked out on the roads, and the explosions of air defense missiles overhead. We try not to let more of this into everyday life.
Therefore, all the talk in the news about great goals and plans, the burning of this war, usually now, at this stage, causes grins and jokes of varying degrees of viciousness. Simple example:
- The news says that we will fight until complete victory over the hohols...
— With whom?)) Contract soldiers are fully refreshed once every 2-3 months, but we mobikss will run out in a year and a half)) It’s time for the General Staff to think about the “army of the dead” and combat necromancers 😁
What are we interested in instead of war?
Firstly, people use the Internet to do housework at home. Relatives do repairs, fix cars, take children to sports clubs and competitions. Our comrades are actively involved in all this - they give money, choose building materials, select work teams, etc.
Secondly, many have a lot of problems with loans and with relatives. Someone’s father/mother died, someone got divorced, someone’s evil aunt is trying to sue for their apartment. Or in the end, your beloved pet died or your bank card was blocked.
Thirdly, we watch TV series, films, anime. We organize matches in “Contra”, “Heroes of Might and Magic”. Others read books.
The fourth is everyday life. Washing, washing first of all, because you have to do a lot of fiddling with it all. Hey, our life here is similar to life in some African village - energy-saving mode of electricity consumption, constant blackouts, everything is dilapidated and flabby. You don’t have to sign up for the Afrika Korps, you can sign up for our SMO - the same as Rwanda, only from a different perspective) even poisonous reptiles in the forests are available. And Soviet architecture of the 1960-1980s as the maximum of civilization.
___
MPS and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 2, “It’s not getting better...”
...and in order for it not to get much worse, you have to work hard.
This general two-part phrase can describe most of the phenomena around us that are characteristic of trench warfare.
1) Let’s take the enemy’s means of destruction and the dynamics of their use. In January-May 2023, these were “HIMARS” flying to the rear, and at the front these were 155-mm Ukrainian shells.
Then the front experienced the pain from the mass of cluster shells when it was our turn to attack - from August 2023 to the end of February 2024.
Enemy drones made life difficult in our near rear back in July 2023. And drops from copters on positions on the front accounted for 50% of the daily attacks (17-25 per day) last October-November.
Since last December, FPV have been all the rage.
And what? Got better? No, it hasn’t gotten better for months, it’s just that the hohols have run out of cluster shells. But a lot of FPV drones appeared.
There was no fracture. We joke darkly about this:
“The goal of the Emperor’s guards is for the enemy to spend all their shells and drones on us.
2) Living conditions.
At first, we started living in houses in towns and cities. We rented for our own money or lived in abandoned buildings. Yes, it was dangerous. But it's comfortable. Were they able to protect us from the waiters who passed our locations? No. Were you able to organize the placement of equipment in a smart way? No.
We were simply all evicted into forest belts and fields. Where we built our comfort-plus dugouts for the first time. The dugout is worse than the house. The only plus is that from the air it is not clear who lives where. It got a little better. Traded comfort for safety.
However, with the beginning of the offensive, everyone began to move and they had to hastily build cramped dugouts, or live in those inherited from other units. Over the winter it all leaked and became moldy. I had to work hard to play with minimal comfort. But it's still worse than it was. Drones also make you hide. It has become worse compared to what it was in January 2023.
I recently heard from one of the staff members reminiscing about how well they lived in Izyum and the surrounding area in 2022 compared to today. The story ends ironically:
- ...then, of course, we handed over everything and abandoned everything, but what a thrill it was in the houses and with freedom of movement.
3) Supply.
It has gotten better, but since we have moved into an area without settlements (or they have been destroyed), we have to rely on state-supplied food. Plus, due to strict restrictions on movement, there are problems with going to the shops - not everyone, as before, can afford it.
Therefore, state-provided supplies have become better, but access to stores has become worse. Mediocre, especially compared to last summer.
4) Enslavement.
In January-February 2023, we drove wherever we wanted within the Zone and in whatever we wanted. We could go shopping and exchange cash so that we would have something to buy food with, while armed to the teeth.
For more than a year, the military police and the VAI [military vehicle inspection] had firmly established themselves in the middle rear and blocked all roads leading from the front. Any departure is only according to the combat task, including with an exact indication of the weapon and the amount of ammunition. VAI officers control and report on everything, including whether the driver and passengers in the cab are wearing seat belts. Last winter, cars were detained and the maintenance documentation was completely checked - I even saw a detained BM-21 Grad at the checkpoint. Only recently were the VAI officers pushed further away, but for several months they made our life difficult.
Naturally, personal transport could be subject to arrest. Just like the military personnel who were not registered in the combat tasks, I thought of going quickly to the store, but ended up in the commandant’s office.
Abandonment of positions by new contract soldiers and refusals have not gone away, so in addition to restricting movements on roads, specific orders from commanders appeared to prohibit travel outside the deployment areas and regular roll calls of large units.
There is less freedom of maneuver, and the stress from the course of service became greater. The feeling that you are serving your sentence in a prison zone, with several rings of security.
It got worse.
____
5) Complicated going on vacation.
This is like a special case of enslavement and logistics.
I do not know the reasons why cars from the Moscow Military District were prohibited from traveling further than Urazovo, along a short route. That is, purchasing building materials for dugouts has to be done with a triple twist (to put it without swearing).
Added to this was a ban on MMO vacationers traveling through checkpoints in the Belgorod region. And now you have to spend at least 6 hours to leave the Zone, + 11-13 hours to get to Moscow.
Why this was done, I don’t know. It got worse.
6) Physical and mental health.
For most, both have only gotten worse. I described this above and described it earlier - stress, hard life, monotonous work, alcohol, tobacco, energy drinks, coffee do not make anyone stronger.
Lately, I have often heard mentions of the appearance of nervous breakdowns and recording of progress in mental disorders - bipolar, hysterics, fits of anger, apathy.
Against this background, our physical education group looks like an oasis - there are already about 7 of us involved in strength training with varying degrees of involvement. The guys (and I) go to great lengths to preserve both our minds and our bodies this way. And it works.
But the people around us are getting worse. We live from month to month - hoping to live to see a rotation, otherwise the first wave of mobs will end up with disabilities of various groups.
7) Groundhog Day.
It hasn't gone away, it's only gotten worse.
The same wheel of worries every day: work, meals, bathing, laundry. Highlights: sports, Counter Strike match. Military highlights include the passage of an enemy drone, which is shot at by everyone who can, because it’s just boring.
That's all. Nothing else usually happens in everyday military life. But now we are much more enslaved, and you consider it lucky to escape from your place of confinement on a work trip (to repair a truck, for example).
And long-term existence in enslavement and in Groundhog Day gives rise to a partial restoration of the medieval worldview:
- Fatalism.
— The vanity of everything that exists around.
— Fierce work to improve immediate life.
8) Feeling like an endangered species.
There are much fewer of us mobs after the October-March offensive period. Our particular regiment can no longer be called a “regiment of mobs,” alas. More than 50% are new contract soldiers.
Many new faces appeared. In neighboring parts too. One day in the spring I crossed paths with a volunteer from BARS. After the conscription service, the guy signed up to fight in a corporate PMC. When he heard that I had already served 19-20 months of mobilization, his eyes bulged - he himself only spent a month in the war)))
Communicating with the new contract soldiers, you feel like a mammoth. The only cooler people than us are the pre-war full-time contract soldiers - they're basically dinosaurs.
And these are not good feelings at all. Watch Lafayette Escadrille or Aces in the Sky (1976). These are the feelings - there were 5 “old men” and 1 “young man”, and after a few weeks there was only one “old man” and one ironic refusenik.
When you meet brother mobs, you rejoice in belonging to them. And at the same time, you acutely worry about the death or elimination of anyone you’ve lost so far.
Last spring we buried a good friend who had been written off as “unnecessary” to the assault company. He would have turned 47 this year; we knew each other from Belarus.
Several others were transferred due to injuries and illnesses. New unfamiliar faces appeared.
It's bad to feel like you're going extinct.
____
MPS and everyday life in the Zone in June 2024: Part 3, some conclusions about MPS mobs and other military personnel
The above is our intoxicating reality, in which we have been living for 21 months now and about 17-18 months in the Zone.
Yes, that's exactly what it looks like. Almost no joy. Sucking vitality. Who thought that war was cool, dynamic and like in “Call of Duty”, I will disappoint you. This is exactly what it looks like.
Remark: at the zero line, the assault troops have their own wheel of fortune - assault, injury, hospital, recovery, back into service... And so on until they lose their fitness for service in the stormtroopers and are transferred to the rear, or until death. It is almost impossible to resign under the Military Commission with the current rules for assessing the health of military personnel in the SMO - except for paying a bribe for 400K+ rubles.
Therefore, in general, during these 21 months we have become very gloomy people. Many people's eyes have gone dark - do you know this expression? Watch films about big wars, like the Finnish “The Unknown Soldier” from 2017. There is a mask of fatigue and sadness on the face.
Our humor has become malicious and hopeless. I gave an example:
- Brother, when is demobilization?
- 100 years later. Conditions for demobilization: 50 years at the front, 50 years in the rear, marry a local Ukrainian, give birth to 3 sons, 2 of whom will be designated as new contract soldiers. And you will be allowed to send only one to Russia, but he will be raised by the state in the “Youth Army”.
We no longer respect most politicians in all countries of the world. Of all the positive ones who have ever been mentioned, I remember only Comrade Stalin and Lenin. And normal generals, like Zhukov or Rokossovsky. Suvorov and Kutuzov from pre-revolutionary history were also mentioned.
In conversations, there was clearly a division between “you there in Russia” and “us here in the Zone.”
Otherwise, we're just surviving. So the day has passed again - and to hell with it.
From vacation to vacation.
A note for hohols: everything described above fully applies to you. Extend this to yourself - Muscovites are not going to leave, cemeteries are replenished, then one military resource (like shells for some systems) of the NATO owners will dry up, then another. The Russian Armed Forces are slowly advancing to the west. You're not getting any better."
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