A video circulating online appears to be showing the devastating conditions in which Russian soldiers are left by Vladimir Putin to fight against Ukraine.
A clip translated and shared on X by Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs, seemingly shows a Chechen soldier loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov filming the living conditions of Russian troops.
In the graphic video, which can’t be independently verified, the soldier walks around a muddy area with broken and burnt vegetation.
Speaking about the situation the soldiers found themselves in, the Chechen national eerily addressed the area as a “place to go crazy”.
The video, the date and location of which was not shared by Mr Gerashchenko, is claimed to depict an underground dugout covered only by an oilcloth. Before showing it, the soldier said to the camera: “This is where we live.”
The surrounding area filmed by the soldier used to be a forest, now razed to the ground by constant shelling.
He said: “That’s the way it is. There are booby-trapped drones flying overhead. Kamikaze drones. Others drop grenades.”
In the 2.50-minute-long video, the soldier also speaks about the behaviour of some fellow fighters, alleging a lack of bravery and duty.
He said: “We are sitting in little holes underground. Wet, no food. This is a place to go crazy. The ones with us are afraid to come out. Half the brigade won’t go out to fight.
“They refuse, they don’t do anything. And I am out in front of them, rushing around. Or rather, some of the guys are moving around.”
The extremely graphic video also includes the lifeless bodies of two soldiers still lying on the ground, with the person filming commenting: “I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to us and we get home.”
Towards the end of the clip, the Chechen national points right ahead, claiming Ukrainian soldiers are stationed there and his troops must conquer that area. He added: “That’s the goal. This is where more than half of the army will die. And many have already died a year ago.”
Chechen militants loyal to the head of Chechnya Kadyrov have been involved in the war waged by Russia against Ukraine since 2014.
Two days after Putin’s troops began their full-scale invasion of the eastern European country, Kadyrov confirmed his men had also been deployed.
This clip is far from being the first example suggesting members of the Russian army in Ukraine are poorly provisioned and badly motivated.
Last year, a Russian prisoner claimed to the Kyiv Post: “They just brought us in, threw us out in the woods and told us to dig and not to go anywhere from this strip because a bird [drone] might fly in and drop something on our heads.”
