A Russian soldier has purportedly been recorded as he describes how his colleagues with illnesses like tuberculosis and HIV are being used as “cannon fodder” in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military intelligence unit (GUR) shared the audio on Telegram, and it has been translated by the Kyiv Post.
While the audio has not been verified, the GUR regularly posts clips allegedly showing Russian soldiers’ communications on the frontline.
The soldier in the video reportedly said commanders “lost the whole f****** company, you killed them all … stupidly threw in as meat, as cannon fodder.”
He added: “So here are 16 people who have hepatitis, suspected tuberculosis, lung disease, tumors in their heads. HIV—there are two more like that.”
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He added that he himself has HIV and that some soldiers on the frontline have been left without financial support.
The soldier continued: “Two days later, some random guy came, I had never seen him before. He says: ‘Guys, if you write a report now that you have no complaints against the top leadership of this new battalion, then you, he says, are going home now. But keep in mind, you will not see the salary for January.
“Well, I think, f*** it. I wasn’t going to receive it anyway. They shouted at me in [Ukraine’s] Novotroitske village that I was getting a penalty and I would be thrown back to the front.”
