Nearly 90 days after Vladimir Putin’s “military special operation” in Ukraine, Russian troops appear to be so demoralized and desperate to surrender that they have begun intentionally injuring themselves.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate on Saturday released audio footage of an allegedly intercepted call that revealed the new batshit trend.
A man identified as a Russian soldier from an air raid brigade in Ukraine’s Kherson region can be heard venting his frustration to his mother and explaining why he wants to give up the fight.
“Why should they [the Ukrainians] give up? We are on their land,” the soldier says to his mother. “It’s not going to end anytime soon. What the hell do I need this for? At 20 years old…I’m not interested in Ukraine at all. I have to come back and resign,” he says.
His astonished mother asks why there are no Russian troops in Ukraine, determined to continue the struggle for the sake of “patriotism”, but soldier Nikita only scoffs.
“I had a commander… who shot himself in the leg just to get out of here. And that was at the very beginning! What is there to talk about? He served in Chechnya.”
His shocked mother goes on to argue that someone needs to “defend Russia” to keep the West from attacking, echoing the Kremlin narrative, dominating Russia’s state-controlled news outlets, that Putin’s war was started over an imminent NATO attack to stop.
“They will just kill us all, it will be World War IV and Russia will lose!” she declares.
“Well, then maybe Putin will change his mind… There are no people, there are no ammunition,” he said, adding that his own commander had sent letters trying to withdraw his brigade, to no avail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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