this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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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 63 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

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 32 points 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

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago

It's a general enough trend that they needed to create a special code for the phenomenon.

[–] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I imagine most of the calls are pretty similar to these ones. I can’t imagine there’s much morale left for the Russians.

[–] rbos@lemmy.ca 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Seems like every generation has to learn the Old Lie again and again.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est

[–] interceder270@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can't help but think most soldiers realize it's a load of bullshit when they're choking on their own blood.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Soldiers realize it well before then. The VFW is a club that hopes it withers away from lack of new members.

[–] tillimarleen@feddit.de 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)
[–] rammer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 11 months ago

Thank you for sharing this. I don't read much poetry, much less in German. But this kept me on the edge of my seat.

[–] idiomaddict@feddit.de 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Jesus Christ. The first one was beautiful and terrible. This was just naked horror (though part of that was that I’m not a native German speaker, so phrases like “blood-shod” in the first poem might have flown over my head in the second one), but I think it might be more effective for it. I also like that it addresses the populace, more than the politicians/potential soldiers.

[–] tillimarleen@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interesting! It‘s the opposite with me, I am not a native English speaker, and I actually didn‘t understand blood-shod. They limp and have blood in their shoes? The pictures that came to my mind reminded me of the Borchert poem. It felt like the adequate reply. I love it for the explicit message: Sag Nein! The horror at its end I find just as horrifying as the Owen poem. Back to back, and we have snapshots of the horrors of WWI, WWII and WWIII.

[–] idiomaddict@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Shod is basically an archaic form of “shoed,” so it’s soildiers who have worn through their boots and are walking just on blood.

I agree that they’re both incredibly moving and horrifying. I think “Sag Nein!” Reflects the perspective of the German postwar generation on communal guilt, whereas the other is more of an attack on politicians. It seems fitting, based on the wars involved, especially because they’re both calls to action, rather than simply condemnations.

[–] Goodman@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 months ago

That was a tough read in both ways.

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 11 months ago

I see nothing has changed then since early 2022.

[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

If this was obtained and released by Ukraine, it is a type of propaganda. It might be true, but it's definitely designed to further erode the spirit of any Russian listener and bolster the Ukrainian side.

Here's Vietnam propaganda trying to get US soldiers to give up: https://people.duke.edu/~ng46/collections/propaganda/vietnam-to-us/LEAFLET%20North%20Vietnam%20Whats%20in%20Washingtons%20War%201%20600h.jpg

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I couldn't finish that book, way too depressing. Also I kept wanting to scream at all those kids to just go home and stop fighting over fucking nothing.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

Russia must be a wonderful place to wake up in the morning.. what an amazingly joyful, wonderful place it must be.. that must be why so many intelligent people have fled for the nearest border..

Russia, the land of earthworms

[–] mtchristo@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

Do any soldiers want in? I bet both sides are tired

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

"It's war, no one's happy. If those same spies were in our camps..."

Lord Tywin Lannister

But seriously, yes, I'm sure they have low morale. But it's frontline peer conflict. I'm sure the GRU has plenty of intercepted calls from Ukrainian conscripts saying and feeling very similarly.

Maybe that can't be extrapolated across the board for the UA, but certainly enough for a similar propaganda/psyop release.

[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Unlikely. The Ukrainians are literally fighting for their homes and their lives. While I'm sure they're sick of warfare, it doesn't follow that their morale would at all be similar.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world -1 points 11 months ago

A lot of them don't want to fight. There are plenty of Ukrainian men, who abandoned their families and just ran away across the border.

[–] idiomaddict@feddit.de 7 points 11 months ago

Andrei’s mom knows what to say to reporters to protect her son, I hope.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world -1 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


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.

“As long as we are needed here, we will carry out our task,” a soldier named Artyom told AP from eastern Ukraine at the end of May, where he’d been stationed for eight months without break.

In the spring, as the Professor’s brothers drove down a road outside their hometown in Russia, a car made a U-turn into the side of their vehicle, sending it spinning as a semi bore down on them.

Called up for military service from a small town in Russia’s far east, he soon found himself in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, on the southern approach to Bakhmut.

In September, Andrei’s mother told AP her son was home, keeping himself busy with his family and collecting pine cones from the taiga.


The original article contains 3,277 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 94%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] wurzelgummidge@lemmy.world -1 points 11 months ago

“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.”

Wow, secret phone calls in English, who would have thunk, eh?