A Russian soldier tells his mum that his company wants to run away from the war in Ukraine. His mother is fiercely against him joining the rest of his company as she is afraid of potential consequences. She is even asking her son to try and persuade his comrades to stay, but he is having none of it as he is unable to explain to them why so many of them have been wounded or killed.

His mother is somehow convinced that the Russian solider is paying for betraying the motherland in his past life by being on the frontline, so he must not leave at any cost. But the soldier is terrified – he tells her that their General’s nickname in the army is “Animal”, that he is ruthless, so no one wants to deal with him.

(R)=Russian man (W)=Woman

 

 

(R): Hey mum, yes, hello.

 

(W): Hey!

 

(R): Basically, I want to talk. What’s happening here is f*ckery.

 

(W): Tell me.

 

(R): Our company wants to run away. I don’t know if the company commander will run or not, but most likely he doesn’t know about it.

 

(W): Why? Is it getting too hot there or what? Why do they want to run?

 

(R): Mum, our general… has a nickname, the “Bloody General”, “Kolyvan”, “Animal”… so, it’s all about our *general*… he’s not a good person. Back in the day he said that he doesn’t give a f*ck about people – “I want to enter Kharkiv!”.

 

(W): And so what? You shouldn’t engage in nonsense… *not* to deprive yourself of everything, of all the awards for being there!

 

(R): How do I explain to you? Everyone here… I spoke to them, they don’t give a sh*t! No one even wants to listen anymore. They just have a crazy panic, and that’s it… Honestly, I’m one of the people from the platoon who are staying, right?..

 

(W): But how can you stay if everyone runs off?! Are you going to stay… just the two of you, with the company commander? You must be paying for your previous life. In your past life you betrayed your motherland.

 

(R): I didn’t!

 

(W): In your past life, in your card it says that you are now in the hot spot because you betrayed the motherland in the past life! Can you hear me?!

 

(R): Yes. I do. Mum. Mum! I’ll speak to my comrades. Do you know how many people want to stay? From our platoon? As many as you have children!

 

(W): Can they not understand what will happen in this case?!

 

(R): Mum! Over a hundred people have now run away. So, a hundred people, they are already in Kaliningrad. Someone is being discharged, or else, but…

 

(W): And what? Did no one get sentenced?

 

(R): No one got sentenced, but discharged.

 

(W): Well, how do you imagine that the three of you will stay there?!

 

(R): Mum, this is just one platoon. There are three platoons like that. The third one is likely to leave in full, and from the second one just a few people will stay. It’s nonsense.

 

(W): Sasha, I’m telling you, you must persuade them that they need to stay! Do you realise, you cannot run away from your duty, once you already got into it, it’s a serious breach! So… I don’t know Sasha, I honestly really want you to get out of there, but not in this way.

 

(R): Mum! How do I explain to people that, let’s say there must be 30 of us, but only 10 remained? The rest are either wounded or killed.

 

(W): They knew where they were going to work! They are on contracts. They went there on their own will! Right? No one was forced, right?!

 

(R): We were told to carry out a combat order. There are different situations…

 

(W): If you call yourself a parcel, get into a truck!