Terrified, untrained Russian draftees play dead on battlefield
Horrified Russian conscripts sent to the frontlines with minimal training and abysmal equipment have resorted to playing dead on the battlefield, their wives have claimed.
The wives of three men mobilized into the 423rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment in September said their husbands are now facing court martial after abandoning their assignment, independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported.
The women, whose names have been changed, alleged that their husbands were sent into battle after barely two weeks of training, which mostly involved digging trenches.
“They built a campsite in a forest. They had no training out there, they were only taken to a shooting range twice, and that’s it,” one wife, Yelena, told the outlet.
After the men were deployed to the Luhansk region of Ukraine on Oct. 14, their families did not hear from them for about two weeks. Then, around Oct. 26, many of the wives reported getting calls from their husbands, who were begging for help.
“My husband called me on [Oct. 27], said it was total chaos out there, told me they were being used as a living shield,” Yelena said. “Lacking any equipment, they were sent there escorted by two guys, also draftees, who had zero combat experience.
“On [Oct. 24 or 25], they came under mortar fire while trying to get out, and one of their commanders had his body torn to pieces.”
Another woman, Irina, told Novaya Gazeta Europe that her husband had “no training at all.”
“There are 27 men out there, and they refuse to get back to the front line because they don’t want to die. After they had refused, they were offered new equipment: body armor, helmets. Otherwise, they were to face a court martial.”
She said that her husband and the other survivors from his unit are now hiding in an abandoned house.
“They had their bank cards blocked, they have no money, no food, and no water. My husband told me he hadn’t eaten for several days, and we don’t know what to do. We went to the military prosecutor’s office, our complaint was accepted, but all they said to us was ‘wait.’”
The third wife, Yekaterina, said her husband faced a similarly dire situation on Oct 25, when his unit was met with extreme shelling that left only 20 men from the 96-person unit alive.
“They would lie on the ground for hours long, pretending to be dead for a simple reason: they had no other weapons except some assault rifles,” Yekaterina said. “Against them were mortars and drones, and if they had moved a finger, a drone would kill them right away. Their wounded commander has not received any aid yet, they say they have no equipment.”
Yekaterina demanded answers from the government, comparing the lackluster military response to the country’s conditions during COVID.
“When we had COVID, all gyms and children’s hospitals were turned into COVID centers nationwide. So, here’s a question to our state: where are the medical centers for the mobilized? I have so much indignation inside me, but it is Russia, so I’ll probably have to accept it,” she lamented.
All of the women say their husbands would rather face severe punishment than be sent back to war.
“The guys would rather go to prison than return to the front line,” Yelena explained. “I ask him about his stance every day now, thinking that he might change his opinion. But no, this is his clear stance now: ‘I’d rather go to prison than defend my state like this, the state that doesn’t care about people’s lives.’”
The Novaya Gazeta Europe interview was published less than one day after the Kremlin announced it was suspending the Ukraine draft. Since it started in late September, the divisive program had drawn criticism from both Russian citizens and abroad.
“There were certain drawbacks in the activity of recruitment centers at the initial stage,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoig acknowledged. “We took emergency measures to improve their work, which brought results. All regions have sent the specified number of mobilized people to military units.”
News of the paused conscription efforts comes as officials in both Moscow and Kyiv brace for a showdown in Kherson, one of the cities that fell to Putin’s forces early in the war.
