Russian soldiers give us the lowdown on what is actually happening in Ukraine (“Exposing Putin’s War of Delusion” by Peter Hartcher (SMH), August 30, 2022).
“Breaking the Silence” is an Israeli veterans’ organisation which raises awareness to the dire consequences of prolonged military occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, when will the Sydney Morning Herald let us hear from them?
Gareth W R Smith
Palestine Liberation Centre
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What does an elite Russian paratrooper do when he reports to his unit for duty and finds there is nowhere for him to sleep? He finds a budget hotel nearby and pays for it himself.
When he finds there is no helmet or body armour for his protection? He joins a scheme with comrades to share their inadequate kit.
When he is given shoes way too small? He shops and pays for his own. His uniform, too – Russian soldiers commonly buy American or European or even Ukrainian uniforms for quality and fit.
When COVID breaks out among the troops? The positive test results are miraculously turned into negative ones, on paper at least.
And then, when deployed to the war zone in Ukraine, when the food runs out? He and his fellow soldiers loot the homes of civilians.
And when civilians dare complain? He gives one a rifle butt in the face. Other civilians are not dealt with so leniently.
We know this and much more because the paratrooper, 34-year-old Pavel Filatyev – a professional soldier from a military family – published a 141-page account of his two months in Russia’s 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment at the outset of the invasion of Ukraine.
His commander is seldom seen. The regiment’s trucks have no working brakes. The overcrowding of the field hospital is solved with an order that no more casualties will be accepted.
Filatyev describes his regiment as being in a state of anarchy. Eventually, men start shooting themselves to be allowed to leave the front.
“And this is in the airborne forces, the elite, the commander-in-chief’s reserve! It is scary to imagine how things will be in other units,” he writes in a chronicle so unsparingly honest that he’s had to flee Russia.