Russia wants to mobilize at least 300,000 soldiers. But everything is missing. The officers openly admit: “We have nothing!” The newly recruited soldiers are supposed to take care of themselves. From tampons to helmets, everything is on their shopping lists.
When Vladimir Putin sent the first soldiers across the Ukrainian border on February 24, the Russian troops had neither food nor winter equipment with them. In summer uniforms they marched through the icy swamps of Ukraine. At that time, however, the leadership in the Kremlin expected a blitzkrieg. In three days they will be in Kyiv, Putin’s supporters trumpeted. Six months later, the army leadership has apparently learned nothing. The mobilization reveals the blatant state of the Russian armed forces.
The newly drafted soldiers lack everything: clothing, protective vests, helmets, medication, bandages. The recruits complain about outdated uniforms and live in barracks. Large buckets replace sanitary facilities. The distribution of moldy machine guns caused a stir.
The mobilized send countless recordings to social networks. They show the astonishing briefings they receive from their officers. In the Sverdlovsk region, soldiers were told that their families had to send them sleeping bags or sleeping mats. “You will sleep wherever you can,” the instructor snaps on the video. “So we won’t get anything, right?” asks one of those present. “You only get uniforms. Protective clothing, everything military – we have nothing! We equip our men ourselves. Also in terms of medicine,” she emphasizes, listing what the recruits will need. “Anything against diarrhea, definitely hydrogen peroxide, bandages. I don’t have enough bandages for all of you!” When she replies that there are no more bandages in the pharmacies, the woman advises looting the first-aid kits in the cars.
“Ask your wives, girlfriends or mothers for panty liners. The cheapest panty liners plus the cheapest tampons. Do you know why? If you have a gunshot wound, you press it into the wound. The tampon swells up and seals the edges. Men, I know from Chechnya,” says the instructor, who apparently served in the Chechnya war. Bandages would also work well as shoe inserts. “The weather is wet over there. My local friends and comrades share this information with us and tell us what to take with us. Men, take care of yourselves! Ask your relatives! Buy what you can!”
Other mobilizers are posting videos from their barracks, where there are no beds and people are forced to sleep on benches or directly on the floor. Elsewhere, soldiers are lucky enough to get old blood-stained mattresses.
The eternal problems in Russia
“Meanwhile, those who have been mobilized in the military commissariats are given whole lists of what they should get and bring with them the next day,” reported Sergey Kriwenko, head of the legal protection organization “Bürger.Arme.Recht” (Citizens. Army. Law). “Not only things like warm clothes and personal belongings are listed, but also tents, sleeping bags and others.” He advises listening to the military commissars and actually getting all of this. “The Russian army is well financed and theoretically everything should be there. But as always in Russia: Everything was either stolen, is of poor quality, or everything is there but is in storage.”
“I therefore interpret such lists as care on the part of the commissariats and the military. They know where and how the mobilized are being sent. At least at the last moment they try to make people understand where they are going and give them opportunity to prepare,” says Kriwenko.
The drafting of 300,000 soldiers poses an enormous challenge to the leadership of the Russian army. However, the armed forces have been struggling with supply problems for the past seven months. “There is a lack of uniforms, food and medicine.”
100,000 rubles for a protective vest
However, only a few of those affected perceive the lists as caring. They vent their frustration at the high costs on social networks.
The journalist , who was brought to him by a friend: “My colleague has relatives in . Big Putinists. They called him yesterday and complained that their two boys were being drafted into the army. They were told to wear protective vests, helmets and buy uniforms.” A protective vest costs 100,000 rubles, a helmet 20,000. The family would now have to take out a loan for this. In a region where, according to official figures from the Russian Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly wage is 47,000 rubles, these are indeed large sums.
Completely unprepared from civilian life to the front
But the freshly recruited soldiers are not only sent to the front without equipment, but also without preparation. Men who had been drafted into the first tank regiment in the past few days reported in amazement that they were supposed to go to war untrained. “We were told openly that there would be no preparation before we were sent to the war zone. The commanders of the regiment confirmed this information. On September 29 we will be sent to Kherson,” said a visibly battered man in one video message. “So make up your own mind about what you want to do with it all.” You don’t even get a firearms briefing, his comrade added.
This is not an isolated case. Thousands of people mobilized from Lipetsk were sent to the front after just one day of training. On Wednesday, freshly recruited troops left Sevastopol for the war.
No chance of eviction
Other recruits are promised a month’s preparation before being sent to war, as can be heard in the video below. “But I can’t say what kind of equipment we’ll get,” announces the officer, taking away any hope that the men will be decommissioned after all. “If any of you have vertebral hernias, plates in the skull, etc., you will be classified in category C. So you are subject to mobilization. So don’t say you can’t,” the commander notes.
He himself is half blind and is on pills and painkillers. “If I drive with you, I will also fulfill all tasks.”
Already mobilized in Ukrainian captivity?
Meanwhile, the first videos of Russian prisoners claiming to have been drafted into the army as part of the mobilization have appeared on social media. The recordings with their statements were published by the Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko and the Telegram channel “Operational Luhansk Region”. One of the prisoners says he signed the mobilization contract on September 21st. With trembling hands he holds his documents up to the camera.
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Source: Stern
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