The fresh call between a Russian soldier and presumably his mother, intercepted and published by Ukrainian GUR, reveals more shocking information about the state of the Russian army. In a nonchalant way, the invader tells his parent about mass looting and rapes, explaining how his friend attempted to take the loot out of the country and got searched by FSB, who “even” took away their fishing rods. Friendly fire also appears to be quite common, with troops at all levels at risk of getting shelled by own artillery or ending up in a tank fight between own tanks. The translation of the transcript is provided below.
The soldier’s mother appears quite amused at the stories, nevertheless acknowledging the “total mess” that is the Russian Armed Forces. Soldier’s name Ulan hints at his Turkic heritage, and the mother’s accent confirms they most likely come from one of the non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation.
(R)=Russian soldier (W)=Woman, presumably his mother
(R): Our own folks went to Russia… Gashiev with another soldier went to Russia to do some business. FSB over there round up everyone for searches, they even took their fishing rods, nearly had them arrested. Thankfully Gashimov had some acquaintances… It’s very strict there.
(W): What for?
(R): Do you remember the photo with a quadbike I sent you? So they tried to take it out, to sell later.
(W): *laughs*
(R): They *FSB* took it away! It’s a nightmare, they take away everything, even the fishing rods!
(W): *unintelligible*
(R): Some are looting here, one looter got caught – he was trying to steal a TV… he’s done – sentenced. Some other guy raped a 15-year old girl in a village nearby or something…
(W): Oh wow, a nazi guy?
(R): No, ours, our soldier. Some of our idiots have enough brains for that “…” Volunteers, the 3rd infantry company is 95% volunteers, because the rest are either 200s *dead* or 300s *wounded*. There’s nothing left of the infantry “…” They shoot each other all the time. They have no comms, they’ll say – “none of ours are there”, so they’ll go and shoot everyone. Our regiment had an engineer from the 15th brigade killed there. It’s a nightmare. Two of our tanks engaged in a fight, also 200s, 300s. This sort of bullsh*t is happening all the time here. Our artillery sometimes shells our own infantry.
(W): On TV it all goes swimmingly… but it’s a mess, everyone knows it’s a mess. If it wasn’t for this mess it all would have ended a long time ago, Ulan.
(R): Our regiment always “distinguishes” itself.
(W): Oh, don’t say, Ulan…
(R): Our regiment commander is the same. When our vehicles were blown up he said – grab the shovels and go as infantry, to die. That’s what our battalion commander said.
(W): Really? What a f*cking scumbag.
