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Intercepted calls from the front lines in Ukraine show a growing number of Russian soldiers want out (apnews.com)

submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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In audio intercepts from the front lines in Ukraine, Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s — people who refuse to fight.

As the war grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, as suggested in secret recordings obtained by The Associated Press of Russian soldiers calling home from the battlefields of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine.

The calls offer a rare glimpse of the war as it looked through Russian eyes — a point of view that seldom makes its way into Western media, largely because Russia has made it a crime to speak honestly about the conflict in Ukraine. They also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions.

“There’s no f------ ‘dying the death of the brave’ here,” one soldier told his brother from the front in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “You just die like a f------ earthworm.”

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[-] vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 97 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We need to be careful extrapolating this to general trends, because the ones doing the intercepting (likely the SBU/Ukrainian intelligence) decide what to release. This is not a random sample.

I have no reason to doubt the intercepts are real, but I do wonder about the content of all the other intercepts that are not released.

[-] theodewere@kbin.social 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

no you're right, i'm sure there are places where the Russian soldiers are having a great time and not dying like dogs

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this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023

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