(R)=Russian soldier (M)=Mother

• (R): Why would they surrender? We are in their homeland!
• (M): Of course they won’t! They’ll stand until the last Ukrainian!
• (R): This won’t end soon. What the hell do I need it for? 20 years old! I have barely seen my child. And life, too. This Ukraine is not interesting to me at all. Should come back and discharge.
• (M): Eh, why come back and discharge? What then?
• (R): To hell with this… I’m telling you, now the second time, the people will ‘refuse’ going here. No one’s gonna go for a contract now. Ask anyone – whomever has their contract expiring, no one has a burning desire.
• (M): So, you really want to say that you don’t have any patriots there, I’m not even talking about officers who are serving for a while… There are no people who set the mood and say that, damn, some patriotism should work out!
• (R): Mum, my battery commander of the second detachment shot himself in the foot just to get out of here. In the very beginning! What is there to say? He was a conscript in Chechnya.
• (M): Fine, but tell me – tomorrow the West will announce ‘Air raid alert across the territory of Ukraine and Russia. We are advancing on Russia’. Who will defend Russia then?! Who?! Tell me! We’ll all be killed simply, there will be a Fourth World War and Russian will lose it!
• (R): Well, then Putin might get his mind back. Surely he understands we are getting our asses kicked hard here! And we have no ammunitions or people. The command in Moscow, our VDV staff command – they know this really well. Our brigade commander tried sending letters many times, he always gets a rejection to withdraw our brigade. It says in the officer regulations – if the brigade has less than 50% *people* remaining, the brigade is withdrawn or attached to another brigade. But what really happens? We are fighting as our brigade like before, but there’s less and less people. Our people even disappear occasionally – someone missing in action, someone in capture, someone runs away, hiding, someone might already be in Russia for a long time!
• (M): So they just leave?
• (R): Of course!
• (M): Yet this is not a war. He couldn’t declare war, you understand?!
• (R): Who? Putin?
• (M): Yes.
• (R): Because he advanced here. No one attacked us!
• (M): He did not attack! He was going to DPR and LPR!
• (R): I don’t know…