The Russian recruits were captured. “The Commanders Left Us”

– We came in the morning to a field with trenches. They dropped us off, told us to go and take positions. (…) When we got out, mortar shelling began. We were shot at three times a day. (…) We had an automatic weapon, and besides, we got nothing. (…) It all lasted for three days. Heavy rain fell, drowned us to the waist – reported one of the five captured soldiers. The recording of his testimony was published on Telegram by Petro Andriushchenko, loyal to Kiev, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.

– Some left there earlier, some later. Together with my comrade-in-arms we went in the direction we had come from. It turned out that there was a Ukrainian police station there. We were told, “Drop your weapons if you want to live.” This is where the whole story is over – added a reservist sent to the front.

Another soldier admitted that “the trenches were half destroyed and there were abandoned weapons strewn around.” “Probably after those soldiers from the previous throw who also escaped,” he added.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, issued a decree of Fr. partial mobilization for the war with Ukraine and threatened to “use all means” to defend Russia from an alleged Western threat. According to official reports from the Kremlin, around 300,000 people are to be put under arms. reservists, but according to the independent portal Meduza, mobilization may involve up to 1.2 million men, mainly from outside large cities.

Immediately after Putin’s decision, there were many reports of organizational chaos during mobilization. Among others, people with disabilities and without experience in the army. There were numerous cases of drunkenness among conscripts, there were also alarms about the terrible conditions of housing reservists and the low quality of the weapons issued to them.

After the order of the captive hundreds of thousands of Russians are trying to leave the country and avoid being sent to the front. People fleeing service in the army try to get through, among others to Finland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Georgia. At the end of September, independent media reported that mobilization points were being established at the borders with Finland, Georgia and Kazakhstan, where men were called to join the army.