War in Ukraine
Russian soldier: “Patriotism quickly disappears if you want to survive”
This Russian soldier’s patriotism has vanished.
© Telegram
In the well-known Telegram channel “Russia no Context”, a Russian soldier describes the murderous everyday life at the front and explains why only crazy people are tempted by Putin’s money to go to this hell.
Russian soldier mourns
He wants to talk about the most painful experiences, he begins. “The boys here were young, one only 19 years old.” He didn’t even know how to hold, load and disassemble his assault rifle. “We gave him a body armor, a helmet and a weapon.” Then it was off to the contact line. “All four newbies were lost.” The Russian’s mourning for the “boys” is laconic, calm, as if nothing big had happened. The soldier thus forms a strange contrast to the Ukrainian fighter Elena Ivanenko, “Redhead”, who screamed her grief and despair into her cell phone after most of her unit was wiped out in the fighting for Robotyne.
The motherland pays Russian soldiers well
The Russian boys were there for the first time. The veterans asked why they had come. The answer: because of the money! Putin’s war machine is lubricated with money. The workers in the defense industry receive top wages, and even more for additional shifts. And the military volunteers are lured by a mix of patriotism and greed. Stylish videos always tell the same message: a young man with a boring job leaves the stable or the cash register and joins the military. Shiny shots, admiring looks from women, patriotic music, weapons, muscles and good money.
This flair has now disappeared for the narrator. “For money! Sure, got it. Here’s your gun, there’s the bloodbath. Go and earn your money.”
Experience ensures survival
Because the new recruits had not served and had no operational experience, they had to die. “When should you shoot and when should you not? What do you do when drones appear? When do you stand up, when do you throw yourself down? All simple questions,” explains the Russian. But it takes ages to understand that. You can’t allow yourself to make mistakes.
“First you have to get your stuff together, survive somehow. Then you have to avoid a drone, a dropped grenade and, once you’ve done that, you still have to complete your mission.”
This is a special war here, he continues, unlike the Second World War, where people jumped out of the trench and shot at the Germans. “If you want to be a hero, you’ve come to the wrong place. Heroism disappears the first time you’re in battle and you see a corpse.” And there would be a hell of a lot of corpses.
No chance of survival for newcomers
And heroism? A few become heroes, he continues. But that’s a long way. “First you have to complete a task. Kill a Ukrainian, hit a Bradley, avoid a drone, capture a Ukrainian. Capture a foxhole, a dugout and then you can show off.”
“Welcome to hell. Before someone makes a stupid decision like he did, think about it a hundred times.”
“The worst thing is if you get caught. Better shoot yourself.”
“It’s more than fear, it’s horror,” he says with a strange calmness. The war may be “necessary,” but it is “certain,” he continues. “I advise you, don’t come. It’s not worth it.”
The Ukrainian side celebrates the skeptic, which is basically a misunderstanding. In fact, the Russian veteran says that anyone who only receives a short infantry training has no chance of surviving a deployment to the front. No matter which side they fight on.