Putin's army is reeling under the pressure of war. Recruits are failing mentally, military resources are running out
Mass murders in barracks, lack of equipment forcing soldiers to loot their own dead, but also the need to remove World War II munitions from warehouses reveal an army under pressure, which feels like there is no escape, Euromaidan Press reports.
photo epa-efe
For many Russian recruits, the illusion of patriotic duty was shattered, leaving in its place fear, despair, and the irrepressible urge to escape at any cost and thereby end any possibility of taking part in the war.
It is a grim reality that is not limited to the front line, echoing across Russian society, barracks and the minds of recruits facing the prospect of being sent to the battlefield alike.
In the most recent incident, highly revealing of this internal collapse, a Russian recruit opened fire on his comrades at a military unit in the Moscow region, killing two of them and wounding a third before turning the gun on himself. The attack took place at the training center of an anti-aircraft brigade for newly recruited soldiers.
A deep crisis among the new bands
Although the Russian military claims that the motivation for this act of violence is unclear, such cases are no longer rare. Shootings, suicides and mental breakdowns among newly recruited troops are increasingly common, revealing a force whose morale is sagging under the psychological burden of war.
Russian authorities talk about isolated incidents caused by stress, but the accounts of soldiers and their relatives tell a different story: in fact, new recruits face harassment, deprivation of all kinds and heightened hopelessness.
Despite symbolic claims of victory and censorship, the young recruits are not blind. They can watch footage from the front, hear stories from soldiers returning to the army, so they know very well what awaits them in Ukraine. Many are trying to escape, but their chances are slim: Moscow has passed tougher new laws that criminalize even online searches for so-called extremist information, a broad category that conveniently includes criticism of the war.
Soldiers take equipment from the dead
Those who are deployed to the front often face harsh conditions, including a lack of equipment, which has reached absurd levels. Soldiers are sent to the front without or with cheap vests that do not provide adequate protection, and plastic helmets, and boots, gloves and basic equipment are often missing.
In a shocking video, a Russian soldier happily extracts equipment from his fallen comrades, filming himself as he retrieves a helmet and vest from a dead body and sarcastically thanks the dead for their contribution.
His cynicism hides despair, having been sent into battle without adequate protection. This scene illustrates how corruption and negligence in the Russian military has reached the point where soldiers are fighting for survival while on the battlefield.
World War II munitions call reveals depleted Russian stockpiles
The shortage runs deep. A video released by Ukraine's 225th Assault Regiment shows German World War II detonators in a captured Russian ammunition depot.
These relics of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, marked with the typical German insignia of the period, are ironic for a regime that claims to be fighting fascism in Ukraine.
At the same time, they reveal the extent to which Russian munitions reserves are depleted, with Russia rummaging through obsolete stockpiles to keep the war machine going.
Recruits risk having to fight despite official protections
Even the recruits who have not yet been sent to Ukraine are thinking with fear that they might end up at the front. Officially, Russian recruits cannot be sent to fight, but there have been cases where this rule has been broken and secretly ignored. Thousands of such recruits are stationed in the border regions of Belgorod, Briansk and Kursk, where they come under almost daily drone and artillery fire from Ukrainian forces.
The fear of another Ukrainian incursion, like the one in Kursk last summer, which left hundreds of Russian recruits captured and missing, haunts many of them.
Last but not least, large numbers of Russians are forced to sign so-called volunteer contracts, often under the threat of punishment and harassment for the rest of their military service, a signature that allows the Russian military to send them directly to the front.
The myth of patriotism crumbles as the reality of the front emerges
Despite the Russian government's efforts to hide the extent of the disaster, the truth is emerging.
Millions of Russians now know someone directly affected by the war: a deceased friend, a missing son or a wounded brother. And with this information comes silent fear and rage; as the Russian state's myth of the age of heroes crumbles, so does the forlorn realization that soldiers are being thrown into a giant meat grinder.
With no prospect of escaping the war, many recruits are left with a choice between desperate measures such as self-inflicted wounds, imprisonment, or accepting their fate, becoming just a faceless name in a cold death toll as the price for modest territorial gains.
