Over three and a half years have passed since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but very little is known about the daily life of Russian soldiers. Kremlin propaganda paints a distorted picture of what is happening, and there are few independent sources that can reveal the truth about what is happening in the Russian army in Ukraine.
Verstka.media (Вёрстка) found out what mobilized Russian soldiers in the trenches, who have been fighting against Ukraine for a long time, think.
When Vladimir Putin started a war against Ukraine, he mobilized farmers, electricians, van drivers, emergency workers, teachers and shop assistants. Many of them planned to spend no more than six months in the war and even thought they would avoid combat altogether. Some even receive promises that they will guard warehouses on the border, but they will not be thrown into battle.
“And we, the idiots, believed them. It is our own fault - this is a harsh lesson“, one of the mobilized soldiers, a retired policeman in civilian life, told the publication. “Now I just want to return home alive. I am not a patriot and I am not eager to take over Ukraine. There are few patriots. Everyone wants to go home“, he said when asked about the mood of the mobilized soldiers after more than three years of war.
In the fall of 2022, Vladimir Putin sees his professional army being pushed out by the Ukrainian armed forces. Kiev has not been taken, and the Russian army is in retreat. At that moment, he issued an order to call up civilians to war.
“At first they told us that you would go for a maximum of three months, a maximum of six months. After six months, we thought: a year is the maximum. But soon we will enter our fourth year... And we are constantly thinking about demobilization!“, another military officer told Verstka.
Many of the surviving mobilized soldiers signed permanent contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Almost all the soldiers who spoke to Verstka described ultimatums from their commanders - – “either sign a contract or storm the front“.
They do this to keep people in the army. Currently, those fighting are either those with expired contracts or those mobilized.
Another soldier says that Vladimir Putin is afraid of the return of Russian soldiers to their own territory, because then they will start asking a lot of questions.
Both in closed chats and in conversations with Verstka journalists, the mobilized are not ashamed of their emotions - which is a novelty compared to previous years. “I am exhausted, both mentally and physically. I have lost all my strength, emotions and hope. I also do not believe that I will live to see the end of the war“, says a Russian soldier.
This picture is very different from the illusion painted by the Putin regime that everything in Ukraine is going according to its plan.
Russian soldiers also share: “Damn it, I just want to get out of here. I'm sick of this survival roulette.“ “Who wants to sit in this f*cking mud, hungry and without water, for who knows how long. With weapons like a native. And they're constantly trying to kill you with alien technology.“
The mobilized soldiers will not be released from the war until its goals are achieved - all government officials say this, although usually in softer words.
And while despair reigns among Russian soldiers, some of them continue to be swayed by Putin's propaganda, according to which Ukraine is not a real country and Nazis live in it. “For me, the end of the SVO is the liberation of the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson, as was announced at the beginning“, says one soldier, according to whom, however, the capture of Odessa is not possible. “I don't care about Kiev. Putin wants all of Donbas. When they take it, then it will be a victory“, says another.
“We are here to win. No, reaching Kiev or Lviv is not enough. We must take full control of the entire territory of Ukraine, purge the Nazis, ensure the functioning of institutions and establish a dialogue between society and state bodies“, sends a message to a mobilized Russian soldier.
Another mobilized soldier calls everything that is happening a dystopia and is disappointed. “I am 42 years old and I had everything wonderful in my life: a small business, family, friends and a strong sense of patriotism. And then I lost everything, including my health... Honesty, integrity and principles have become simply dangerous. That is why very often I feel the desire to get as far away as possible from this madness, lies and hypocrisy. My eyes have been opened. But we are still here“.