For the second time in the last six months, a plea to prominent Russian politicians from conscripted troops has gone viral. The first confirmed incident was when troops of the Russian 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade pleaded with the governor of their native Primorsky Krai to alleviate the abuse at the hand of their commanders who ordered unsupported infantry assaults on Pavlovka, Ukraine.
In the last twenty-fours hours the below video went viral, reportedly showing members of the First Slavic Brigade [FSB] of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic [DNR]. In the video the soldiers plead to President Putin that their DPR commanders have no regard for the lives of the conscripted and throw them against Ukrainian fortifications with no support. If conscripted troops refuse to join these shock troop battalions they are fired at by the separatists.
Russian conscripts sent to the First Slavic Brigade [FSB] of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic [DNR] appealing to President Putin directly concerning DPR commanders shooting conscripts refusing to join shock brigades. pic.twitter.com/jZHK31DXNd
— Tessaron News (@TessaronF) February 26, 2023
“All of you [the mobilized – ed.] are expendable material. The only chance to return to Russia is to be wounded,” the Russian soldier explains the situation in his letter. He continues,“FSB commanders are firing machine guns and BMPs at our mobilized soldiers…, our lives are unimportant to the FSB command…, our command does not even know the real combat situation at the front, we are losing every day,” the letter added.
While this video initially began appearing on pro-Russian telegram channels, there is the possibility that the letter and video were staged by pro-Ukrainian actors as an information operations action.
However, this has not been the first video to emerge from Russian conscripts denouncing the deplorable conditions in terms of armament and deployment. This videos surfaces at the same time as Wagner conscripts and officials decry the lack of support for their offensive in the vicinity of Bakhmut, signaling a much more widespread issue for the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
