There are many reports that poorly trained recruits are being sent to the front in Ukraine. Now Russian reservists are addressing an appeal directly to President Putin.
In a new video appeal, Russian reservists in the war zone in eastern Ukraine have complained about grievances in the troops and called on Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for help. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Putin should ensure that the commanders do their job, said a hooded spokesman in the video message recorded on Saturday and distributed on the Telegram news channel.
A dozen people in uniform can be seen on the video – also with no recognizable faces. The group’s spokesman complained about the lack of equipment and lack of leadership from the commanders.
“We know that we are not the only ones who make such a request,” said the man “in the Donetsk region”. Putins should not take care of the situation on paper, but on the spot, he demands. So far, Putin has not visited the troops in the combat zone – unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has made occasional visits to the front.
Speaker laments senseless dying
The Russian spokesman complained that there was a lack of equipment, including night vision devices, to carry out combat tasks. Other fighters as well as soldiers’ wives, mothers and sisters had already complained about abuses in public messages.
The commanders would simply ignore the presidential decree and deploy unprepared units in the assault squads, the man lamented. They would be sent forward while the soldiers stayed behind. “The leadership of our regiment does not engage in dialogue with us, intimidates us and threatens us with imprisonment if we refuse to fight and advance to the first front line.” Due to a lack of reconnaissance support and a lack of communication with other units, reservists would needlessly die and be injured.
The man points out that the average age of the unit is 40, and many have health issues. There was no medical examination to begin with. “We do not refuse to perform the tasks of territorial defense. We refuse to take unjustified risks – with machine guns against tanks, against mortars and snipers,” he said. According to him, the men had been drafted into the Sverdlovsk and Perm regions.
Source: Stern
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