Inhuman living conditions, humiliations by officers, obsolete or absent equipment: in a video broadcast by independent media The Insider Russian recruits, recently mobilized, sent to the Belgorod region, shout their displeasure on a station platform. “No one needs us”says a voice behind the camera.
Some say they were forced to sleep outside for several days, until they fell ill. One of the soldiers claims that five hundred of them spent a week living “like cattle”without supply or assignment to a military unit.
Armed with weapons dating back half a century and written off from warehouses, they say they had to pay out of pocket for their food and equipment. “We spent an absurd amount of money just on food, let alone ammunition.”
Since the announcement of mobilization “partial”the elements confirming this lack of resources are circulating on social networks and – a notable fact – on the accounts of groups close to the paramilitary group Wagner, who are very upset against the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu.
Here, it is a commander who advises to come with his bulletproof vest and medical equipment. There, these are women who, on chats, offer to take swabs for gunshot wounds and sanitary napkins as shoe soles. Here’s a website, created to answer questions about mobilization, that encourages soldiers to bring their own night vision goggles and drones to the battlefield. This is a fundraiser launched by a group from Sverdlovsk to buy first aid kits, warm clothes and instant noodles for the soldiers, reports The Moscow Times.
This while Russia has the fifth largest defense budget in the world.