Russian Soldiers Speak About the War in Ukraine

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Interesting article in the Moscow Times that interviews a few Russian soldiers speaking about their experiences in Ukraine.

Source article: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/06/03/on-a-train-in-southern-russia-fatigued-soldiers-see-no-end-in-sight-to-war-a85283

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all right what’s going on everyone so today we’re going to take a look at some pretty interesting interviews of Russian soldiers as some of them cycle back to the front lines in Ukraine While others begin their trip back home I thought this article did a really good job of kind of highlighting or reminding us that war Fighters no matter what army they’re a part of what country they represent at the end of the day are people just like you and I you know fathers Sons Brothers neighbors that feel about these things probably how you or I would in a similar situation now this one is coming from the Russian perspective if I see a similar article from the Ukrainian perspective of course I’d be happy to dive into that as well this article was published in the Moscow times on June 4th 2024 titled on a train in southern Russia fatigued soldiers see no end in sight to war they say the Train’s dining car is packed with Russian soldiers some are heading to the front lines in Ukraine where their country has been waging a war for over two years While others are returning home for a short leave most of them are drinking and that’s a theme throughout this entire article is a lot of alcohol right the soldiers are either currently drinking uh or are already pretty drunk and I wouldn’t read too much into that one way or the other that’s a theme for any military when people are cycling off the battlefield in the United States when we had soldiers coming back on Mid tour leave were at the end of deployments from places like Iraq and Afghanistan and others uh alcohol was a major a major feature of that that’s just a part of War so I wouldn’t dig too much into that here as it kind of permeates every single one of these these interviews they interviewed one Russian soldier named dimma who’s in his 40s who said quote making war against the ukrainians is tough it’s like fighting against some of our own he said that he has quite a few relatives in Ukraine some of whom are fighting in the Ukrainian armed forces and he said that he prays every single day that he will not meet them on the battlefield he adds that in one on one occasion his unit captured a Ukrainian Soldier and he said quote honestly I felt really bad he said he didn’t want to fight and I didn’t want to fight against him either it brings up this this aspect of this war compared to others where historically it has tended to be easier for soldiers to fight adversaries that don’t look like them uh that don’t share any sort of common history any sort of culture and and certainly don’t speak the language right if you look at World War II as an example uh there’s a lot of stories about how it’s so much easier to vilify and kind of explain the Japanese as lesser you know not human even because they looked different than us they had a different culture than us us the West the United States and and our allies they didn’t sound like us right in very very different language whereas it was a little bit more similar when fighting the Germans in Europe and there are examples in cases where the intensity of the fighting was less in Europe than it was in the Pacific and that’s one of the reasons that people often point to is it’s it’s very very hard at times when you come face to face with the Enemy that looks like you talks like you and has the same uh General history now uh they spoke with a man named pava who said before the full scale Invasion he was a senior specialist at one of Russia’s largest companies he volunteered after he had been told that some of his relatives had been killed by Ukrainian soldiers at the start of the war right now and these job descriptions are kind of all over the place they said his job is to manage anti-aircraft systems and plan offensives it’s kind of all over the place those are very very different aspects of War so I don’t know if some of this is being Lost In transition or in Translation if we we have to take into account that anytime you’re talking to the soldier from any country when they’re coming off the battlefield uh you’re going to get a little bit of War Stories in there right a little bit of an exaggeration is is always at risk when recounting how things played out in war anyways uh pble said here quote I draw arrows on a map and the soldiers move forward talking about the planning of offensives he said sometimes he finds himself in the difficult position of sending squads of men into an attack well aware that their chances of survival are SL it’s a distraction tactic meant to pull enemy forces attention from the main offensive taking place elsewhere he said quote I can’t tell the men otherwise they wouldn’t fight with the hope of winning his eyes glistening with emotion adding quote after all of this you don’t sleep well you can understand how that plays out if you think about just how much it weighs on someone’s conscience someone’s conscience when they are leading troops in battle and and troops fall that stays with people for the rest of their life the idea that you would intention Ally send people off to their death knowing that there’s a significant chance they’re not going to make it back alive and you can’t tell them that and in fact their mission is just a distraction you have to think that for anyone with any sort of moral compass that’s going to weigh heavily for a long long time that’d be a very difficult task to be in charge of right look at a group of your fellow countrymen and plan an operation knowing that they’re just a distraction that they’re just bait essentially valuing their lives so much less than anyone else’s they say some soldiers are visibly drunk a misunderstanding Sparks between DEA and another passenger it seems they’re about to come to blows but then they calm down they Channel their tension into an improvised push-up compet competition between the dining cars tables as the irritated waiters look on you could have swapped that out the names out with like any soldiers from around the world at any point right that is just a a a purely military scene right there some guys hyped up lot of adrenaline lot of uh lot of emotion coming off of a battlefield or maybe heading in into one and next thing you know they’re drinking and knocking out push-up competitions while the civilians that are there trying to just do their job look on a little bit frustrated they say the soldiers describe the front line as hell on Earth the losses on the Russian side are enormous hundreds each day some of the men say drones so death from the sky finishing off wounded soldiers on the battlefield where they lay Deus says he always keeps a grenade hanging from his belt he would rather blow himself up then be captured and face torture which is an interesting aspect of this war we have seen cases of torture or alleged torture um especially of Ukrainian soldiers that have been captured and detained by Russia but for that to be so prevalent to where Russian soldiers are carrying grenades because they’re worried about being tortured in Ukrainian camps maybe I’ve missed that but I’ve not seen a lot of evidence that that’s been happening so you got to think of of how strong that that messaging has been for a soldier to make that decision on the battlefield and say I’m confident that if I get C captured it’s not going to be hot meals and and and warm clothes and shelter and medicine it’s going to be uh torture I’d rather blow myself up they talked to one man who uh was named Joor who was called up during the partial mobilization of 20122 he said quote only a few of us who are mobilized are left now he’s not talking about like everybody who is mobilized in 2022 or maybe he is but he wouldn’t know that information likely he’s talking about a group that maybe he went through some portion of training with you could put that in the dozens maybe even a couple hundred soldiers that he’s referring to say last December Joor and his comrades were hiding inside of a house in Vadar when a tank discovered them in open fire wounded him in the leg despite having shrapnel still lodged in his leg and being diagnosed with PTSD Joor was deemed fit for service and is heading back to the front he said quote if I didn’t risk 5 years in prison for desertion I would get off this train now and go home even by foot this war is pointless now some something from the very early days of this war is there were some Russian prisoners being captured that deserted and were picked up by the ukrainians and then question and then their answers were spread all across the internet uh saying everything that would benefit Ukraine and and and kind of downplay Russia and at the time I said we can’t take that with 100% certainty right these are people in Ukrainian captivity uh that chose to Desert so you got to take that into consideration they’re probably going to say whatever they think is going to appeal the people that are now there uh hold them in captivity that’s something I think we also have to keep in mind when looking at this this statement here from Joor somebody who’s already been to war who’s been wounded came back got somewhat treated for those wounds does not sound like the man is fit to fight and is already heading back to the front he’s going to be pissed probably right uh so it’s not shocking in the least that someone in his condition is probably leaning more towards that I would just desert this war is pointless he’s been there he’s seen it he does really see where it’s going but either way notable I think the big takeaway from that isn’t that a Russian soldier is upset about the way the war is going and would rather desert than have to go back uh but that somebody with shrapnel still lodged in their leg uh and a PTSD diagnosis regardless of how intense that is is being sent right back to the front right they talk about another soldier who smiled bitterly as he explains that he is heading to the front he said quote I probably won’t make it this time pointing to the gunshot shot wound on his chest which is not fully healed so I thought that was interesting we had two cases back to back here of Russian soldiers with wounds that have not yet healed on their way back to the front it’s you know you’re talking about a relatively small sample here they only interviewed six seven eight people in total and two of them have existing wounds that have not yet healed but are still heading back to the fight both dimma and Pavo say they do not doubt that Russia will eventually win no matter how long it takes and how many lives it cost costs Deus said quote we are reclaiming our historic lands and he believes that Ukraine has never been a sovereign nation which is very much in line with a lot of the speeches that Putin gave if you think back to the interview uh where Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin that was kind of the entirety of that interview was talking about how Ukraine has never really existed it’s always been a part of Russia it’s just a matter of Russia taking it back he added that Russia won’t go any further past Ukraine unless NATO countries attack us thought that was interesting youve got these soldiers on the one hand talking about their experiences in the you know in the trenches the day-to-day life of of fighting the war and at the same time zooming all the way out to talk about the Strategic implications of how this war plays that’s likely just due to the media they’re consuming their take on those events uh wouldn’t read into that as these soldiers necessarily having any insight into the Russian plans uh not by a long shot paavo compared the ongoing War to a challenge between two boxers where he said in the end it will be who who runs out of it will be uh the winner will be who runs out of energy first I think that’s an analogy and it’s something we often use when describing the world war the first world war where it was just a matter of two boxers who could take two boxers as in the two sides kind of oversimplifying it but really who could take the most punches and keep standing because you know a boxer gets in the ring they’re not going to come out unscathed they’re going to get hit just like we’re seeing in this War and World War I when talking about you know positional Wars of attrition to a degree so it’s just a matter of who can keep going the longest or conversely who runs out of that energy first but again I thought this was an interesting article to kind of shed some light on the the personality if you will that we see from some of these Russian soldiers as well as the firsthand experiences that they they are living through day in and day out in this war I’ll link the article in the description below if interested but that’ll do it for now I will also put in the description below a link to our substack which covers a variety of National Security subjects talking about China Russia Iran Hezbollah the these quite a bit more bunch of subjects that I think are pretty interesting if you want to check them out again Linked In the description below but thanks for watching and I’ll see youall next time [Music] [Music]