- Hundreds of conscripted Russians are already dead in Ukraine, Russian media reported.
- “They got four grenades, they dug the ground with their hands,” said a conscript’s sister.
- Previous reports have highlighted the lack of training and equipment for Russian soldiers.
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The sister of a Russian soldier deployed to Ukraine said troops are suffering heavy casualties, are not being given weapons and are expected to dig trenches with their bare hands.
According to Russian news agencies, hundreds of recently mobilized Russian soldiers have died on the front lines in Ukraine’s Lugansk region after being shelled by the Ukrainian army for three days.
On Sunday, TV Rain, an independent Russian-language television channel that relocated to Latvia earlier this year, spoke to the families of two of the soldiers. It posted the exchange on Telegram.
The sister of a soldier named Alexander, who was drafted on October 16, said that on November 1 they were taken to the Luhansk region and immediately sent to the front.
“The commanders said you’re meat, they brought you here for that, they’re going to kill you all anyway. They gave them a pioneer shovel for 30 people and told them to dig trenches for themselves,” he told her.
After that, the commanders told the soldiers that they would get food for them and left, according to their story. She said the men were hit 40 minutes later by artillery bombardments that lasted for three days.
Of the 560 mobilized alongside him, Alexander told his sister they could only spot 31 after the shelling. They don’t know exactly what happened to the rest.
“They had no guns, nothing. They got four grenades, they dug the ground with their hands,” Ekaterina Brazhnikova, the sister of another mobilized soldier, told the news agency.
The reports add to earlier reports pointing to serious disruptions in Russia’s efforts to send some 300,000 additional Russians into the military to fight in Ukraine.
On Friday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Russian military is now likely to dispatch units with the sole purpose of threatening to shoot soldiers caught retreating in Ukraine.
“These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers to force offensives and have been used by Russian forces in previous conflicts,” it said, adding that this was due to low morale and reluctance among the troops fight, was due.
Previous reports have highlighted the apparent lack of training and equipment for Russian soldiers.
In October, British intelligence said Russia was rushing reserve troops into battle with “barely usable” guns, giving Putin’s generals a new kind of headache.
British intelligence said that in many cases these reservists had arrived in Ukraine “ill-equipped”, with Russian officers concerned that some had even been sent unarmed.