Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ A former Wagner mercenary has spoken of his experiences fighting for the Russian army after joining it in 2023. He says that there is "corruption, drugs, alcohol all around" and most soldiers are prevented from going on leave because desertion is so common. ⬇️

2/ 'Mikhail', a Central Asian man, says in an interview with the independent Russian news outlet Current Time that he first went to Ukraine after the end of the battle of Bakhmut and around the time of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellion in June 2023.

3/ Wagner was subsequently broken up by the Russian Ministry of Defence, which required its fighters to sign contracts with the Russian Army. However, Mikhail found the army to be a chaotic, corrupt environment in contrast to the more disciplined Wagner Group.

4/ He says there is a big difference between the TV propaganda and reality at the front line. "On television they say one thing, that we occupied some village there. But we are sitting there in the same forest plantation and we don't understand at all who occupied whom."

5/ According to Mikhail, "There is corruption, drugs, alcohol all around. Any whim for your money, as they say. There is a lot of money circulating there. Fuel, diesel fuel, kerosene - it all costs money. The entire command is involved in this: they write it off for something.

6/ "The car doesn't work, it doesn't drive at all, but (according to the reports) it exists, it is assigned to the unit. And every day 50-60 liters of diesel fuel or gasoline are written off for it.

7/ "Considering that there are infantry fighting vehicles, tanks – the fuel consumption there is high, and a lot of money is written off for all this. And where it all goes – well, you don't need a lot of intelligence to guess."

8/ The soldiers are exhausted and fed up with the war, and the rate of desertions is so high that few are allowed to go on leave. "There are people who have been serving since 2022."

9/ "And who have only been on vacation once in their entire time, maybe 15 days and that's it, and they are not given any more vacations because they are afraid that they will not return. Can you imagine how tired they are?

10/ "The percentage of those who do not return is already very high. And to monitor this... You see, someone has to monitor this. But even the military police are having a headache about this. So it is easier to just not let them (go home), no one."

11/ He says that he managed to desert under the pretence of needing dental treatment, with the aid of a doctor who wrote him a certificate. As he was a foreign citizen, he was able to travel to Moscow's Domodedovo airport without being stopped, and to fly home from there. /end

Source:
currenttime.tv/a/do-menya-sey…