A Russian soldier who says he is one of the only survivors of an assault on the Ukrainian town of Vovchansk has described how his regiment was “crushed” by machine gun fire when ordered to advance.
The soldier, identified as Anton Andreev, from the 5th company of the 1009th regiment of Vladimir Putin’s army of invaders, said in a video that he doubted he would make it out alive.
‘There are twelve people left out of a hundred. They shoot at us with machine guns and drones. We are complete meat. And the generals in Moscow don’t give a damn,” he is reported to have said.
Andreev’s account comes as the British Ministry of Defense said Russia lost around 1,200 soldiers a day in May – the highest rate recorded since the conflict began – amid a devastating offensive using troops as meat. cannon
The total number of victims has exceeded half a million since Putin’s forces launched their illegal invasion in February 2022, according to the Defense Ministry.
The soldier, identified as Anton Andreev, from the 5th company of the 1009th regiment of Vladimir Putin’s army of invaders, said in a video that he doubted he would make it out alive.
The site of a Russian air defense system in Belgorod appears in flames following what is believed to have been a HIMARS attack.
“The total number of Russian casualties (dead and wounded) since the start of the war in February 2022 has probably reached 500,000,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement on X.
He added that tThe high casualty rate is most likely a reflection of Russia’s current attrition offensive, which is being carried out on a broad front.
“It is very likely that the majority of Russian forces receive only limited training and will be incapable of carrying out complex offensive operations.
“As a result, Russia employs waves of small-scale but costly attacks in an effort to weaken Ukrainian defenses.”
The lack of training among the troops was highlighted by the Russian soldier in the video, who said that new troops arriving at the front had only received “between four and five days of training.”
‘They sent them to attack in the morning; It didn’t even go beyond two houses. Pinned down by machine guns, they were crowded and were finished off by the FPV,” he said. ‘In one group, only one boy remained.
He said that the first night they “introduced” his group, “half the company fell”; “Thank God, most were injured, but there were also many dead.”
Calling the attack a “bloodbath”, he said: “We didn’t reach the enemy stronghold until the next day. Even then, they said to just get there and other troops would follow.
In this photograph released by the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, June 2, 2024, a Russian soldier operates a weapon at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
‘We were told to only take armor and a gun in Volchansk… the first night was fine, we took a street and then all hell broke loose.
‘A group arrives, they send them to attack a street. At first everything seems fine, then you end up under mortar, machine guns and FPV. They eliminate so many people. But the command shouts on the radio to continue forward. We are not allowed to go back.
Russia’s tactic of sending wave after wave of ill-equipped and barely trained men to die on the front lines has allowed it to make some progress in recent months.
But its strategy of continually drawing on new recruits is limiting its ability to form more capable units, a Ministry of Defense report suggests, meaning the army’s overall effectiveness is limited.
It comes after footage emerged of what is believed to be the first major use of Western-made weapons systems by Ukraine’s military to destroy targets on Russian soil, prompting a senior Kremlin official to warn of “fatal consequences.”
The Ukrainian military is believed to have attacked an S-300 or S-400 air defense system using the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and completely destroyed it in a devastating attack on Sunday.
A stunning video taken by a Russian soldier and shared on the Telegram messaging service showed a huge fire in a field in Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Kharkiv.
The turret of a Russian T-80BV, one of Russia’s best battle tanks, was seen shattered dozens of feet in the air amid a fireball explosion.
The attack comes days after US President Joe Biden for the first time granted Kiev limited permission to deploy US-made weapons against targets inside Russia in a bid to stop Vladimir Putin’s debilitating attacks on the second city. of Ukraine, Kharkiv.
Until now, American weapons were only authorized for use in Ukrainian territory annexed by Russian forces, representing a significant change in White House policy toward the conflict.
In recent weeks, several NATO countries have said they will allow Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia with weapons they have supplied to kyiv, something that President Vladimir Putin warned could escalate the war into a global conflict.
Russia says it is open to dialogue based on the “new realities” it has created on the ground, where its forces control about 18% of Ukraine. kyiv says peace can only be based on a complete withdrawal of all Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
