A new video features mobilized Russian soldiers blaming their commander for mixed messages and Russian President Vladimir Putin for putting them in harm’s way.
The footage, which is just over a minute long, was shared online on Wednesday and consists of a group of soldiers from Russia’s Yaroslavl region recording a message specifically addressed to Putin. They claimed that their battlefield commander wanted them to withdraw from a mission, but is now accusing them of desertion.
“We ask you to find a solution to this situation,” the message began, according to an English translation. “The company commander gave us an order to withdraw from positions, as we were fired upon by tanks, artillery. For its part, the command did not cover us and did not support us. We only had machine guns, and all other armament was damaged.”
“Now they want to declare us deserters because the company commander says he didn’t give us orders. The command doesn’t care about us,” they added.
Mobilized soldiers from the Yaroslavl region of Russia fall back under heavy fire on the orders of the company commander. The commander now claims he never gave the order and the men will be declared deserters. They are asking for help to find a solution. pic.twitter.com/CcMbD9BsSe
— Dmitry (@wartranslated) January 18, 2023
The soldiers went on to say that when they were first in military service after being called up in the Yaroslavl region, they were supposed to be in “territorial defense”.
“But we were deceived,” they said. “When we came here, we went into attacks and stayed on the front line. There was no third or fourth line, as the president said.”
The footage was provided to the conscripts’ wives and mothers and was obtained from the Yaroslavl publication “Pro Gorod”.
A Ukrainian tank moves along a road on January 18 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured in the inset, was called out by name by a group of conscripted soldiers from Russia’s Yaroslavl region who claimed they lacked equipment and that their commander did not care about them. Getty Images
A day before the video appeared, about 10 wives and mothers went to the publication to discuss their loved ones. The soldiers are said to be between the ages of 21 and 40 and have been involved in the war since November 28.
An unnamed woman said the soldiers, as mentioned in the video, were initially told they would not face serious threats if they were on the front lines. The women now intend to share the soldiers’ concerns with Putin, the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, and the military prosecutor of the Russian Federation, Valery Petrov.
“My husband was mobilized, we have three children together,” a woman with the pseudonym Oksana told Pro Gorod, according to an English translation. “The children, of course, are proud of their father that he defends his homeland. And our husbands did not hide from the mobilization.”
“We all want to win [in the conflict]”, she added. “And that is why we require conditions for this: normal uniforms and weapons, as well as professional military personnel working in hot spots.”
The women also claim that all of the soldiers’ wages go towards clothing and equipment, including socks, thermal imaging cameras, walkie-talkies and aerials.
Mikhail Troitsky, a professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that the mobilized soldiers in question are unlikely to remain in “territorial defense.”
“The conscripts probably realized from the start that they would have to fight, but the conditions they faced at the front turned out to be far more dangerous than they expected and their commanders’ sense of responsibility for their lives [was] much more limited than they wanted it to be,” Troitsky said.
In December, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his country was not ready for the partial mobilization of 300,000 members ordered by Putin in September.
Eight conscripted soldiers from Russia’s Kaliningrad region, who first went into combat in September, left the front line by ordering a taxi to take them 300 miles back home. They were caught and now face up to 15 years in prison on desertion charges, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
Earlier this month, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia had been recruiting residents in the town of Khorlovka, Donetsk Oblast. Of the 30 conscripts, four were said to have disabilities.
There is talk of a second mobilization due to the state of the war and the increasing casualties.
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.
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