Soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during exercises in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
Photo: REUTERS
YOURSELF – FEAR!
Late in the afternoon, a Russian patrol on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region detained three Ukrainian soldiers who swam across the river to surrender and brought with them three machine guns, 12 magazines equipped for them, and an RPG. with three shots. The Ukrainians’ intentions were clearly signaled by a white cloth tied to a stick.
– Constant artillery and mortar attacks from the left bank, we could not complete a single task from the commander, whom I saw only on the first day. And then he was always somewhere in the back. On the third day they began to starve. Rations, as they said, are not delivered, because there is no fuel. It’s like they bought it with their own money. And our pockets are empty, later one of them said why he decided to give up. – I made a decision for myself at the first opportunity to give up. Being in the extreme position along the banks of the Dnieper River during the day, I noticed a boat. In the evening, with two of my comrades, who also generally agreed with me, we swam to the left bank. We find a white rag, tie it to a stick and swim. It was very scary, because our people could start shooting at us at any moment.
Even when crossing the river, they were not afraid of the Russian soldiers, but of their own. The fact that they will start shooting at them. And they had every reason to. Now a video about the exchange of fire between the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against each other is widely spread on the Web. As the Ukrainians themselves comment on the situation, on the video a detachment of the notorious Bandera and mercenaries tried to shoot soldiers who did not want to go on the offensive. They responded with fierce fire.
Ukrainian soldiers have very little desire to go on the offensive. So much so that the other day, two of the three airmobile battalions (one would like to write aerial graves), about 500 people, simply refused to go on the attack. And an increasing number of those mobilized by force at the first opportunity prefer to raise the white flag and raise their hands and lay down their arms.
So, the well-known Ukrainian anecdote: “Mom, immediately write to the captivity” – it turns out, not such a big anecdote after all.
At the same time, the surrendering Ukrainians clearly show three groups of reasons that contribute to the adoption of this decision. Dozens of typical stories of those who surrendered make it possible to group them quite clearly, regardless of the age of the prisoners, their professions and experience in former civilian life. And there are more and more stories like this.
HIGH LOSSES OF UKRAINIANS AND THE EFFICIENCY OF TREATMENT OF RUSSIANS
– We were 100, and less than half remained. What can be the fighting spirit or morale after that?
– In one of the battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Krasnolimansky direction, out of 300 servicemen, five people survived. One of the Ukrainian battalions lost 155 people in the Zaporozhye tactical direction.
– They did not let their heads leave the bench. Shelling began, grenades were thrown from drones, shots were fired at us from RPGs. They told us to leave, we consulted, but what to do? She’s out. They took off our armor, they took off our helmets and they took us away.
– All attempts to gain a foothold are mixed into the ground by their artillery, and when they storm, our artillery also throws directly at us, knowing full well that there are people here.
– The first company is already half gone, my platoon is gone, the third – the remnants, the battalion is gone, the losses are terrible.
– The entire crowd of 740 people came to defend Batkivshchyna at the address, and in three weeks about 260 people remained from this crowd.
– The driver was not from our brigade. He didn’t even take us to the same place about 150 meters, on the way to the point, the two who were going first were blown up. One immediately 200, and the second friend expired a little later. The connection did not work. Literally immediately, the Russian artillery began to work on us.
– They send dozens – hundreds to clean up the plantation (forest plantation – approx. Aut.), And then they cannot pick up any of the guys.
– I was the only one left alive from the squad, and only because I surrendered.
LACK OF TRAINING, SUPPLY AND COMMAND ATTITUDE
– They issued airsoft plates (on bulletproof vests) before the assault, for which the AK-74 caliber 5.45 mm is fired.
– They did not teach tactics or automatic exercises. Nothing. Sent stupidly without exercises.
– We contacted – there was no connection. We asked for help, no one responded. Those who were taken prisoner survived. Nobody wants to serve because that’s the attitude. I think more than half of the unit is gone.
– The level of equipment – I was given an old submachine gun, seventy-ninth, in my opinion, of the AK-74 year. To disassemble it, I had to hit them against the wall. It was rusty. I couldn’t get the lid off or unscrew the mouth. The machine guns were in very poor condition, the grenades were Soviet, the machine guns were in the same condition. They brought little food. Recently, they even drank water themselves.
– Then our drone flew up and launched a VOG (fragmentation shot from a grenade launcher – ed.) between me and your guys. I think so, mine saw that he was in captivity, but they did it on purpose so that he would not give anything to the Russians.
– I did not pass the medical examination, they immediately said – I am healthy. Three horns from four cartridges – that’s all the training. The level of training is very low.
– In the position, we buy ammunition, machine guns, grenades, bulletproof vests at our expense. The same goes for helmets.
– The military registration and enlistment office caught at the supermarket exit – handed over the summons and said to go with them. I was. The things have already been taken by the mother to the landfill. After that, they were immediately sent to school. We fired a couple of times, nine bullets each, and hit the mark. And so, basically, they walked through the woods and supposedly trained tactical skills, but I didn’t receive any tactical skills.
– The morale of the fight is low, because there is no competent attitude on the part of the authorities. To soldiers – regarding consumables
– The brigade commander sent the village of Partizanskoye in the Nikolaev region directly to the position of the Russian troops, ordering, in which case, to call fire.
– Thousands are dying, and thousands of wounded lie needlessly and forgotten. Hospitals do not want to accept them, in particular, in the Mukachevo military hospital, the wounded lie in the corridor, where they are not fed, not given clothes and not provided with medical care.
– The eldest of the group said that he would lead the evacuation, he left, but never returned.
– We have little preparation, little was said in France and here there is no special preparation. Why send us there to study? I don’t know who the French and the British fought against, what can they teach?
– Commanders have an attitude towards disposable things – “now you are, you will not be, we will find new ones.” To them, we are a disposable toy. That’s what they told me the first day I arrived: “new unique models have arrived”.
– The majority no longer want to go to war, we are tired of all this and the attitude of commanders towards soldiers.
HUMANITY TO THE PRISONERS
Do you know what ours did with those three prisoners who crossed the Dnieper in a boat when they brought the unit to the place? fed. And even before the interrogation. Of course, it can be assumed that they did it on purpose so that they would soften up before interrogation, but this would be an erroneous version. Those who were mobilized by force, who offered no resistance, and even those who came and turned themselves in, are treated by our military as if they were long-lost relatives.
– Nobody beat us, did not mock us in captivity, not even in words, – this is a common refrain in the stories of captured Ukrainians. But there are also details.
– They bandaged my wound, sent me to the infirmary and immediately gave me medical assistance.
– The Russians shared their dry rations, cigarettes, gave tea.
– They give me medical attention. The doctor comes, looks at the wounds, treats them. Prick vitamins. To be honest, I did not expect such an attitude.
– In captivity, we were treated better than our previous command.
– I didn’t think they would treat us well in captivity. They shared the last one. The last meal I shared with me. And they told us something completely different – that it is better not to give up.
And the final general refrain: “I want our people to drop their weapons and stop fighting.”
BEING AND CONSCIOUSNESS
In the last couple of weeks alone, dozens of such stories. And its uniformity only emphasizes the real, not staged character. This is not a riot of Zelensky’s fantasies or his accomplices, but the unvarnished, unvarnished truth from the trench.
Probably, many of the readers are now a little disappointed that not lofty, but pragmatic reasons became the reasons for the delivery of these and hundreds of other Ukrainians into captivity. Where, they say, is the denunciation of the venality of Zelensky and his team, where is the dissatisfaction with the fact that Ukraine was forced to serve on errands with the West? And another, another, another…
And why, if “the majority do not want to fight”, did they not stick their bayonets into the ground or turn them against kyiv, but continued to attack? Who was in the army, for that the answer to the last question is known. There are too many things mixed up there: the need to obey commanders, the punishment of the Nazi volunteers in their unit, even execution by themselves, the inability to organize, the fear of persecution from family members who they remain in Ukraine and much, much more.
But as for those who are dissatisfied with the lack of “high” motivation for those who give up, for a start I can advise lovers of high affairs not to even sit in the trenches under fire and not go into a couple of attacks, but in less with full equipment to make a forced march in the current heat of kilometers at least ten. However, even without the heat it is enough to clear, or rather cloud the brain.
I have had enough of these mundane, everyday reasons. Yes, the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is still far from completely broken, hundreds surrender, but tens of thousands continue to fight to the death. Although the number of deserters in the Ukrainian Armed Forces is growing exponentially. In the General Staff of Ukraine, according to information from kyiv, anxiety is growing over the increasing cases of surrender of entire units. The order was given to strengthen military discipline in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, before entering the positions, the phones of the mobilized were taken away, and any attempt to leave the positions was treated as desertion. In some parts, even cartridges are issued only before the battle, in order to reduce the number of suicides.
And let them surrender now for domestic reasons. The main thing is to stop shooting. Understand that the best way to save your life is to surrender to the Russians. That captivity has gone from being a noun to a survival name for Ukrainians. And the realization of what, how and why is arranged in this world will come later. In the end, no one has canceled the thesis of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, which is far from being wrong in everything, that being determines consciousness.
So, mom, it is better to write immediately in captivity. Not make mistakes. This is the best option for the Ukrainian army.
