“’F*****g cowards’ Russian officer shoots OWN troops as army morale on brink of collapse”
A RUSSIAN army officer admitted he has been forced to shoot at his troops to try and force them to fight, as morale among frontline troops appears to be on the brink of collapse.
By John Varga
12:41, Sun, May 1, 2022
The soldier also said fellow officers were is state of “panic” and just wanted the war “to end”. Russian forces have been fighting for over two months in Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin’s ill-judged military campaign drags on with no end in sight. Putin’s army has encountered fierce resistance from their Ukrainian opponents, who have inflicted heavy losses on the invaders.
Recent estimates suggest the Russian army may have lost over 20,000 soldiers since hostilities began towards the end of February.
Exhausted soldiers are now being pressed into a new Kremlin offensive in Ukraine’s eastern territories, as Putin eyes capturing the entire Donbas region.
However, troop morale appears to have hit rock bottom with soldiers increasingly refusing to fight.
A recently intercepted telephone conversation between a Russian officer and his wife revealed the desperation of Putin’s frontline commanders as they try to motivate their soldiers.
The officer said: “My soldiers don’t want to fight. I even shoot them - but it’s no use.”
The commander reserved his sharpest criticism for the new recruits being sent by the Kremlin to the trenches.
Noting that around 60 had arrived, he continued: “F*g loads of them are cowards, alarmists. The problems are with them.”
Putin and his generals have been desperately trying to bolster troop numbers to compensate for the number of dead and injured.
The Russian president signed a decree ordering 134,500 new conscripts into the army as part of Russia’s annual spring draft in March.
Security analysts also suspect the Russian despot may use the forthcoming Victory Day celebrations on May 9 to issue a general mobilization throughout the country.
The Russian soldier told his wife that disillusionment among the rank and file had spread to the officers as well.
Sounds right, according to other things I’m reading.
The old “The beatings will continue until morale improves” tactic.
134,500 new conscripts into the Russian Army.
But, doesn’t Ukraine have at least twice that many nearing completion of training?
My guess is that some of those Ukrainians’ training might be extended to learn all the new (to Ukraine) weapons coming in.
As an aside, it has to be a bit of a problem for Ukraine to train soldiers with so many different (but some times parallel purpose) weapons in use...