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Captured Russian soldier said commanders were high on painkillers and gave ‘nonsensical orders’ like sending them out under mortar fire
Sinéad Baker – July 6, 2023
- A Russian soldier told CNN his commanders were high on painkillers and gave nonsensical orders.
- Slava, who was captured by Ukraine, said this included soldiers being sent out under mortar fire.
- He told CNN that he got only two weeks of basic training and Russian soldiers “had no morale.”
A captured Russian soldier told CNN that his commanders in Ukraine were high on drugs and gave nonsensical orders that put their men’s lives at risk.
The prisoner, identified as Slava, said his commanders would send soldiers out under mortar fire while high on their stock of painkillers.
Slava also described jumping over craters and body parts amid Ukrainian shelling, before being captured in a foxhole south of Bakhmut. It is not clear when this took place.
CNN interviewed Slava and two other Russian soldiers in the presence of Ukrainian soldiers.
The outlet said the captives did not appear to be speaking under duress, and that it did not use their real names to avoid “possible negative consequences upon their return to Russia” and to follow Red Cross guidelines on reporting about prisoners of war.
Slava and Anton, another soldier, said they had just two weeks of basic training before they were deployed.
“We had no morale,” Slava added.
Multiple reports have pointed to low morale among Russian troops, including letters left behind by fleeing Russians detailing “moral exhaustion” and “worsening” health.
Russian soldiers have also previously complained about the competence of their commanders.
Both Slava and Anton, who were recruited out of prison, said that everything they had known about the war came from Russian media. Media in Russia is considered to be tightly controlled by President Vladimir Putin.
Anton also described how he planned to kill himself when Ukrainian soldiers reached him, as he expected to be either tortured or executed.
“I switched the rifle to single shot mode, and I thought I would shoot myself. But I couldn’t,” he told CNN.