Many Russian soldiers struggle with the orders of their commanders. An intercepted phone call now reveals how hair-raising some commands are perceived on the battlefield. And how the soldiers react to it.

The Ukrainian secret service has published a phone call between a Russian soldier and a relative. In it, the soldier complains that everything is sinking into the mud. And that the fighters were rarely provided with food. Then, when he talks about his commanders’ orders, he gets really angry.

Soldier: “We are treated so badly. Nobody gives a damn about us. They sit in their warm shelters 100 kilometers away. And then they give us idiotic orders. ‘Attacks! There is a minefield in front of us. ‘Attacks!’ All idiots. They say ‘hang in there. The conditions are the same for all of us.’ The conditions are not the same. They sit in their three-story bunkers and we sit under cellophane. This war is completely unprepared.”

The soldier explains how low the morale of the units is. “People are leaving. But they will be brought back. But they don’t want to fight. you have had enough Everyone is just looking for a way to get out of here.” But he doesn’t know how to get out of there.

He is on the battlefield, 20 kilometers from the nearest settlement. “The rockets are flying over our heads.” When his relatives ask if they can’t at least make a fire against the cold and damp, he says: “We can’t make a fire. We did one recently. The grenades came flying straight at me.”