As morale among Putin’s ranks crumbles, Russians are reportedly clamoring for Ukraine to submit even before being enlisted into the military, according to Kyiv.
Men who are afraid of the conscription have been calling a hotline to learn how to surrender safely before they are sent to the front lines, according to Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence.
Videos of a recently hired tank commander who has been informed he would deploy to the Kherson frontline in two days without firing a shot on a training range have also surfaced.
More video shows two soldiers griping that their leaders had abandoned them in a field in Ukraine without providing them with food or drink and that they would be better off fighting for the opposing side.
After conscripts started showing up at the front, Kyiv’s generals said that they had killed 550 Russian troops in the previous 24 hours, underscoring the fact that Moscow’s haphazard reinforcements are being put into a meat grinder.
The tank commander is heard saying in a video that has been made available online: “The authorities have informed us that there will be no training before we are sent to the battle zone.
The 29th of September is the day that our commander has officially announced we will be deployed to Kherson. Decide for yourself what to do with it going ahead.
“There has been absolutely no training—no shooting, no academic preparation—nothing. F***.’
The commander has been located by Radio Free Europe reporter Mark Krutov, who has established he is in a Moscow barracks known as Kalininets.
The guy claimed to be a Moscow night shift worker who was sleeping at home when troops arrived and told him to report to the front.
When prompted to clarify, he said: “Can’t discuss now, things have changed tremendously, hopefully for the better,” and then he cut off communication.
Another video, supposedly from Ukraine, showed two guys claiming to be Russian troops sitting in a foxhole in a woodland.
As his companion sits behind him, the guy turns to the camera and says, “Here we are in the wilderness.”
“They simply bombarded us; they were meters away.” We were abandoned in the woods. like ammunition being fired into the f***ing trees.
What [are our leaders] trying to achieve with a force that is utterly useless? It is more detrimental than serving in the Ukrainian military.
“You f***ing f***ers!” And none of our team’s commanders are present; they were all the first to f*** off and leave. Just the two of us remain at this time.
We have no supplies or electronics on our machines. There were no binoculars, infrared imagers, or anything else. ammunition for a machine gun the bayonet, too. But there is absolutely nothing. We are waiting here. Let’s wait and see what happens.
We spend the night on the front lines of the conflict. The field is exactly across from it. These idiots have abandoned us without any f***ing water. Zero food. Let’s wait and see what happens next.
An apparent female quartermaster was seen speaking to prospective recruits and suggesting that they pack tampons in another piece of video.
The lady instructs the new recruits that in the lack of medical supplies, sanitary items may be used to control bleeding and seal bullet holes.
They are urged to carry their own sleeping bags, tourniquets, medications, and roll mats, among other things.
One of the new recruits wonders, “They won’t give it to us?”
The lady responds by shouting, “It’s all ours, lads.” You will only be handed an armor set and a uniform.
These are only the most recent instances of low morale and lack of readiness in the Russian ranks after the exhaustion of Putin’s troops during the seven-month conflict in Ukraine.
Moscow has resorted to scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of supply and equipment while Kyiv retools with Western weaponry.
And last week, Putin issued an order for what he described as the “partial mobilisation” of Russian military reserves in an effort to address Russia’s ongoing personnel issue.
Since that time, tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent to military sites where they have received hurried training and inadequate equipment before being sent into fight.
The UN expressed concern on Tuesday after hearing reliable reports that there had been roughly 2,400 arrests in less than a week during widespread rallies against the draft order in dozens of locations.
Ex-Soviet Georgia, which was invaded by Russia in 2008, reported that since Putin’s announcement, there are now roughly 10,000 Russians entering its borders every day.
Nearly 100,000 migrants have entered Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation on Russia’s southern border, since September 21, according to Kazakhstan’s Premier Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who also promised that officials would “guarantee their safety.”
Ukrainian forces are still moving forward in the country’s north, moving toward the province of Luhansk and Donetsk.
On the southern front, near Kherson, where Ukrainian advances have been restricted but Russian deaths are reportedly substantial, fierce battle has also continued.
As “voting” in phony referenda came to a conclusion today, attacks continued as Putin prepared to carve off portions of Ukraine and declare them to be Russian property.
The Russian dictator is rumored to be considering making the announcement that Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson have chosen to join the “motherland” in a speech to the nation as early as Friday.
They will help Putin to convince his own people that Russia is currently under attack, despite the fact that Ukraine, its Western sponsors, and dozens of other international leaders have promised never to recognize the ballots.
That would pave the way for greater escalation, possibly even a nuclear attack on either Ukraine or its allies, as some fear.
Putin said in a televised meeting with authorities that “saving people in the territories where this referendum is taking place… is the center of the attention of our entire society and of the entire country.”
The votes, according to his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, would have “severe” legal repercussions and “consequences for security,” he added, alluding once more to Moscow’s threats to deploy nuclear weapons to defend its territory.
This month, Russian forces in Ukraine experienced significant setbacks in both the east and south of the nation. According to analysts, this prompted Putin to move quickly with the vote to solidify Moscow’s influence there.
The EU will impose consequences on those who organized the “illegal” vote, according to spokesperson Peter Stano, following a similar announcement made by the UK earlier this week.
In the meantime, President Volodymyr Zelensky received a surprise visit from French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who was in Kyiv to express her nation’s support for Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
After the votes were announced last week, even Beijing, Moscow’s closest friend since the beginning of the invasion, stated that Russia should respect territorial integrity in the conflict.
The so-called referendums are structured in a manner similar to what Moscow did in Crimea following the overthrow of Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president by widespread public protests.
Like before, onlookers now believe that the results of the vote are inevitable. Voting boxes were carried door to door by election officials in many cases by armed Russian soldiers.
After the results are released, lawmakers are anticipated to act quickly to annex the lands, and Russian news outlets have reported that Putin may sign legislation this week formalizing the territorial grab.