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A Russian paratrooper who fought in Ukraine wrote a memoir detailing his time there.
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Pavel Filatyev described ransacking for meals and receiving little route from commanders.
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“I can now not watch all this occur and stay silent,” he wrote.
A Russian paratrooper whose memoir is essentially the most detailed day-by-day account but of the warfare in Ukraine described chaos that included scared commanders, determined searches for meals, and disdain for President Vladimir Putin.
Pavel Filatyev documented his expertise combating in Ukraine in a 141-page memoir on the Russian social-media platform VKontakte in August. The paratrooper was based mostly in Crimea and served with the Russian army’s 56th Airborne Regiment.
The Washington Submit on Sunday printed excerpts from the memoir translated into English. At some factors, Filatyev describes incidents through which whole Russian troops are killed by pleasant hearth, the outlet reported.
Towards the tip of February, the 34-year-old wrote about on the point of go to warfare with no details about logistics and having little understanding as to why the warfare was occurring.
He described an incident the place explosions might be heard 10 to twenty km within the distance, as troopers had been waking up. All through the day, the regiment moved towards the Ukrainian metropolis of Kherson, however their convoys stored getting caught within the mud.
“The commander tried to cheer everybody up. We’re going forward, leaving the caught tools behind, he mentioned, and everybody ought to be prepared for battle. He mentioned it with feigned braveness, however in his eyes I noticed that he was additionally freaking out,” he wrote.
Filatyev mentioned it took him someday to comprehend his homeland was not beneath assault and that the warfare was an unprovoked invasion.
A day afterward February 25, Filatyev described Russian vehicles that appeared “type of loopy.” Filatyev walked from automotive to automotive, asking individuals how they had been and heard, “Rattling, that is f—ed up,” “We obtained wrecked all evening.”
One of many troopers from the eleventh brigade advised him that there have been solely 50 of them left.
“The remaining are in all probability useless,” he mentioned.
On March 1, the group superior on Kherson, an vital port metropolis in Southern Ukraine, and troopers searched buildings for meals and water.
“We ate every part like savages, all that was there was, cereal, oatmeal, jam, honey, espresso. … No one cared about something, we had been already pushed to the restrict,” he wrote.
His account additionally described Russian troops purposely capturing themselves within the leg to get despatched dwelling from the warfare and obtain a $50,000 payout from the federal government.
Filatyev was evacuated in early April after an eye fixed harm.
Whereas he survived, he mentioned that almost all of individuals within the Russian forces are dissatisfied with Putin and the federal government.
Learn full excerpts, translated into English, in The Washington Submit.
Learn the unique article on Enterprise Insider
