As the Ukraine war enters its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers are requesting retirement, audio intercepts obtained and reviewed by The Associated Press reveal. Russian soldiers speak in abbreviations: 200 seconds for dead and 300 seconds for wounded. The urge to flee is becoming common, and there is also talk of the 500 (those who refuse to fight).
These conversations also explore how the war has evolved, from the professional soldiers who first pushed for President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, to the men from all walks of life who were forced to serve in harsh conditions. is clearly shown.
They joined the calls by talking to relatives and soldiers, some of whom are still at war in Ukraine, and by investigating open source materials linked to phone numbers used by soldiers. Confirmed people’s identities. The Associated Press is withholding names and identifying details to protect the soldiers and their families. The conversation was featured in January 2023, with some of it near the longest and deadliest battle on Bahmut, but has been edited for length and clarity.
When they returned home, the deadliest season of the war had just begun. Tens of thousands of Russians were about to die. Now, as Moscow rushes to replenish its troops, the voices of these soldiers can be heard as a warning. These are men who live on rainwater, kill with knives, and know that only luck will keep them alive. Forgotten and exhausted, they want to go home.
Professor Nicknamed “Professor Crazy” because of his messy hair, he was selected on the first day of Russia’s September 2022 draft. He feared he had killed the children. Now he is in a state of helplessness and is plagued by hallucinations of the dead. “I imagined that on the other side, there might be young people just like us, and they have a whole life ahead of them,” he told The Associated Press in June. “Bones and tears, we are all the same.” Artyom To Artyom, the war seemed pointless, except perhaps as a way to escape the series of debts he had left behind in Russia. Speaking from Ukraine, where he was serving more than eight months, he told The Associated Press that he loved his family before the war and even more now. He regrets not spending more time with them. In a phone call to his wife, he described everyone as being “dark as hell” and that he would have run away if given the chance, but he had no intention of running away, he said.
“I have to save the people with me in the trenches, and myself,” he explained to The Associated Press in May. “That’s what I want to do. And to crush the Ukrainians faster and go home.”
Roman Records show that before Russia invaded Ukraine in earnest, Roman worked at a law firm. Caught up in Putin’s September 2022 mobilization, he offers the following advice: This war should be avoided as much as possible. He has survived by drinking rainwater, scooped up the entrails of dying people and put them back into their bodies, and ambushed Ukrainian trenches with a knife.
“I already feel sorry for shooting birds rather than people,” Roman told a friend. “To be honest, if there is even the slightest possibility, please exempt me from military service.”
Andrei After four months in Ukraine, Andrei concluded that his life meant nothing to Moscow. Mobilized soldiers like him “are not considered human beings,” he told his mother. Commanders fear that they will never return, so they are not allowed to leave, even if they are sick or injured.
“You’re going to die in this hole where you live,” he told his mother.
“You better not get sick,” she said.
In September, AP spoke to the mother who was collecting tomatoes in her garden. Although she grew up in Ukraine, she said her homeland was no longer recognized. It is full of “traitors and fascists,” she told The Associated Press. “Are you blind or stupid or can’t see that normal humans don’t exist? Or do you want to turn your children into monkeys like America?”
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Writers Lynn Berry in Washington and Alla Konstantinova in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed to this report. Students in the Russian Translation and Interpretation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies also contributed to this report.
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For more information about The Associated Press, visit https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.