It’ll be like the Chechen war - said one mobilized soldier. Even if it ends, our leader will thank and leave. A new one will say: I never promised you anything. Back home they’ll say: We never sent you.
One of many remarks gathered by Verstka from mobilized Russians.
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Russian media outlet Verstka has interviewed dozens of mobilized. Three years in, most express regret and little desire to continue. “There aren’t many patriots here. Almost everyone just wants to go home,” said another mobilized
Here are some more statements from mobilized:
- I wish I could go back three years and tear up that draft notice. I’d rather take a suspended sentence than have spent all this time fighting and suffering. Every day out here has felt like a waste of my life
- "Meat", that’s how they see us. Like we’re not allowed to have our own opinions or feelings. We’re just expendable bodies, sent out to do a job and nothing more
- If only we could all go home at once. They’d sh*t themselves.
- When we got the draft notice, they told us we’d spend six months guarding border warehouses. And we, fools that we were, believed. None of us expected it to drag on for years
- It’s like Squid Game roulette. You take turns firing. And there’s always going to be a loser
- Who the hell wants to sit in this f**king mud, not knowing how long, hungry and thirsty? Armed like some tribal guy in a loincloth. And they’re constantly trying to kill you with alien-tech weapons - Goddamn, I just want to get the hell out of here
- Now it’s a whole new kind of war. Our drone crews and electronic-warfare teams are dying. Guys with severed limbs can’t even be evacuated, and many are on the brink of sepsis. It’s total f**ked-up chaos. Hell, we’ve seen hell before, but nothing like this
- I just want to make it home alive. I’m not a patriot, and I have no desire to take over Ukraine. Three years have been wiped from my life, what’s left is just anger
- People desert every day. Alerts go out many times daily, and almost no one judges them (deserters).
- One man faces ten drones. Why don’t we have that many drones? I have an opinion about it that could get me jailed. I think someone is pursuing a policy of wiping people out. Otherwise, instead of sending in assault troops, they’d be flying drones or sending in vehicles
The outlet Verstka notes that conspiracy theories are not uncommon among servicemembers:
"What if our state is turning into a Muslim country, where Russian men are being discarded, and widows are given payments to start new families with migrants?" - asks one of mobilized
Some soldiers also criticize the low moral character of their comrades:
"My fellow soldiers saw that I like cats and kept saying they’d shoot them. And how would you describe them? Not rotten? Or those soldiers who think all Ukrainians are disgusting and act as if they’re somehow above them. Above them how? They came to their country, onto their land, and expect to be welcomed."
“The country doesn’t give a damn,” another mobilized soldier explained to Verstka. “They’re (civilians) just dancing around. And no one even knows where the front line is. You can see it all when you’re on leave. No one cares about this. Everyone just wants to get drunk.”
Inflation and a worsening economy are eroding the financial incentives for mobilized soldiers as well:
“Back in 2022, our pay was high. Now even couriers earn more - and they’re at home with their families every day. Our salary should be much higher.”
But not all soldiers expressed such pessimism; some said they were willing to continue fighting, at least for a while:
“For me, the end of the special military operation means the liberation of the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, just as was declared at the start.”
