Two calls published by Ukrainian GUR on the weekend of 3-4 September. You can watch the videos with subtitles and/or read the transcripts below.

“The young ones get nothing at all, no clothes, no sleeping bags!”

On the equipment that fresh Russian reserves are getting. We can hear from this intercepted call they are provided with old, dirty uniform, and appear ‘homeless’. Likewise, they are given old weapons, some are crooked.

(R)=Russian man (R2)=Russian man 2

 

(R):The main thing is you are not at the front.

 

(R2):No, we’ve been let go, [and instead of] those who discharged, others came and replaced us.

 

(R):Right.

 

(R2):Replaced, yes.

 

(R):That’s good.

 

(R2):Yes, the young ones [get] nothing at all, no clothes, no sleeping bags, f*ck all. Can you imagine this? For those who just arrived? [They’re] like beggars.

 

(R):They must be in awe.

 

(R2):Yes, yes. They wear dirty clothes… wash them, put them on. Like homeless.

 

(R):Right. Did they at least get weapons?

 

(R2):They were given assault rifles, from ’76, ’78, these are the rifles they have. Some are crooked… Mine is more or less decent, others are… They don’t give serious weapons, but throw you to the front. How can you attack a tank with a grenade and an assault rifle?!

 

(R): You can’t, brother. So the battalion has no anti-tank, ATGM platoon?

 

(R2):Nothing at all. Just the tanks standing a bit further, only the tanks standing and that’s it. They are given coordinates, but they can’t even hit where the hohol tanks are.

“We are infantry, we are the a*s-end!”

Drunk DPR fighter tells his wife about his old position which was bombed and now only a crater remains. The majority of his unit appear to be either killed or wounded.

(R)=Russian man (W)=Woman

 

(R): It got f*cked up completely, the mortar [position], where I’m calling from. There’s nothing there anymore.

 

(W): Mhm.

 

(R): There’s a HUGE! Huge crater, and nothing else.

 

(W): You serious?

 

(R): So… if I say, I will try [to call], that doesn’t mean I gave you the word, that I will call, and you should wait on that specific day.

 

(W): Are you drunk or something?

 

(R): Me? Yeah! What else to do here? F*ck this, today I got hammered! I’m f*cking drunk.

 

(W): I noticed. 

 

(R): We survived! We are infantry, we are power! Do you have an idea how many people remain alive out of 300? 72! Out of 300! The rest are either 300 [wounded] or 200 [dead]! We are infantry, we are the a*s-end!