A Russian officer involved in planning ground operations in Ukraine revealed to The Moscow Times that he very often sends his soldiers to certain death, but cannot tell them to their face.
The soldier, presented by the publication only as Pavel, before the full-scale war worked as a senior specialist in one of the largest companies in Russia. He enlists in the army as a volunteer after being told that some of his relatives were killed by Ukrainian soldiers at the beginning of the war.
Today his job is to manage anti-aircraft systems and plan offensives. Countless lives depend on his decisions, he says. “I draw on the map and the soldiers move forward,”, says the Russian officer.
Sometimes Pavel finds himself in the difficult position of sending squads of men to attack, knowing that their chances of survival are slim to none. This is a distraction tactic designed to confuse enemy forces about the main offensive taking place elsewhere. Pavel shares that he can't tell the soldiers that because they will give up the attack knowing their chances of coming back alive. "I can't sleep well," says the officer.
Since he had a high-paying job before the war, Pavel asked that his military salary be donated to an orphanage. "I don't want to be paid to kill people," he explains.
The Moscow Times spoke to Russian soldiers traveling on a train near the border with Ukraine. Some will be sent directly to the front lines. "Fighting against the Ukrainians is difficult," admits Dima, a 40-year-old soldier. “It is like fighting against some of our own”. Russian soldiers don't see the war ending anytime soon. Many of them drink alcohol.
Dima has many relatives in Ukraine, some of whom are fighting on the side of Kiev. Every day he prays that he will not meet them on the battlefield.
Both Dima and Pavel say they have no doubt that Russia will eventually win, no matter how long it takes and how much lives it costs. “We are taking back our historic lands,” said Dima, who says he believes Ukraine was never a sovereign nation. “Russia will not go further [from Ukraine] unless NATO countries attack us”, he adds.
Russia has long been criticized for treating its soldiers like cannon fodder. Many of them are sent to the meat grinder at the front, because the Putin regime knows that it has unlimited human resources. The Kremlin is not interested in the lives of not only Ukrainians, but also its own soldiers. According to the General Staff of Ukraine, since the beginning of the invasion, 515,000 Russian soldiers have been eliminated at the front. These data have not been confirmed by independent Western sources.