"Only 11 people left in my platoon!" Topic

There are only 11 people left in my platoon; there should be 30. We have a battalion of 320 people but there's only 52 of us left. Not just because people have been killed or injured, but because some have refused to fight…a whole lot of them.

Intercepted phone call on Ukrainian Pravda: link

Napoleon avais cinque cent soldats…

It is so weird reading something from 'Pravda' and accepting that it's generally true. During the Cold War we would dismiss anything from Pravda or Tass as generally being propaganda.

Ukrainian Pravda.
Maybe better than Russian… BUT…

What I find strange is that Russian soldiers can 'refuse to fight'?
Possibly translation. 'Reluctant', maybe?
In West…MPs would have them straight off, and away for CM.
Have assumed from history, that Russians would be 'more direct'.
Mass mutinies… hmm. Not sure I can swallow that.

What I find strange is that Russian soldiers can 'refuse to fight'?

Seems to have something with Putin refusing to declare this to be a 'war', which allows soldiers to decline serving.

Cheers, Bill. But HOW can a soldier 'Decline'? Unless Russian system is rather different to ours?

I am not in the know… but 'could' servicemen 'decline' to serve in A'Stan…or Brits in NI?
Maybe be 'removed from unit'? Or Dismissed?

Under Russian military rules, troops who refuse to fight in Ukraine can face dismissal but cannot be prosecuted, said Mikhail Benyash, a lawyer who has been advising soldiers who choose that option.

The Guardian: link

To clear things up a bit, see here:
Russian contract soldiers increasingly jailed in occupied Donbas

It's simple.
You're a young, maybe even conscript ruzzian or from their colonies like Buryatia etc, so they treat you like
Nothing new in ruzzia since time immemorial.
Now they send you to die.
Most do so, a lot even like it.
It's for zhe greater ruzzian reich, and you may even have the opportunity to cut other men's balls off, loot white goods, and rape beautiful women in agony.
Or maybe you just like driving a T-72 because as a kid you spent weekends playing with tanks in your grandma's backyard while grandpa told you about the good old days when ruzzia was respected and feared for defeating the Nazis.
And was indeed zhe greater ruzzian reich.
That sounds like a good thing, right?

Well, of course, it's not a pastime for everyone.
Nor are there enough T-72 for everyone to play around.

So, there is nothing else to do for you in life.
You're living in a ed up third-world hole without a future, albeit with nukes of course, but not much more.
You will die with say thirty per cent chance as a hero of zhe greater ruzzian reich.
Of course noone will know and much less they will care.
Your dad is already eager waiting for his new Lada he will buy from your Cargo 200 money.
If he gets it, because, well you know, it's cheaper when you're MIA.
He just gets the cash for your cold dead body.
And rightly so, you miserable good-for-nothing could have just gone AWOL.

You're living in ruzzia, remember?

A new television set for the ruzzian state television wouldn't be bad either.
They always show wonderful stories about a maltreated ruzzia that proudly and unbendingly defends its rightful place as a great culture and civilization in the world at great sacrifices against Nazis, NATO etc.
So, at some point you realize, what the , I'm dead anyway, why should I care who executes it?
The chance to die in one of their 'refusenik' concentration camps is even much smaller.
Of course you may end up in jail for one or two decades somewhere in siberia, but where is the difference to a normal life in zhe greater ruzzian reich?

So, yes ruzzia is still a very different system than the USA.

-----
Ceterum censeo…
Stop them in Ukraine, send more heavy weapons.
The more dead ruzzian soldiers pile up there, the better.

And a new Lada for every ruzzian father!
YouTube link

Russian contract soldiers increasingly jailed in occupied Donbas

= Allegations of 'unlawful detention, torture and inhumane treatment'

See also the TMP thread: Russian soldiers refusing to carry out combat missions

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Well as I and others have said. The poor training, leadership, and employment of Russian Forces has caused them some very high losses. But as we also know … you can't always believe what much media has to say. Regardless of whose …

And we can't dismiss some Russian troops deserting, refuse to fight, etc. Their NCOs are not much better than their troops it appears. So, there is a problem to some level of discipline & good order, it seems.

The new "Volunteer Battalions" have it written into the (usually 6 month) contract that they are willing to fight in the SMO and they only get their signing bonus after 3 months, but ISW reports:

Russian reservists and members of "volunteer" units are reporting that Russian authorities have failed to deliver on promised benefits and pay. Russian authorities have reportedly placed recruits with no experience into positions as commanding officers at the company level or higher, failed to provide sufficient food, ammunition, or cigarettes to soldiers, failed to provide for the funeral arrangements of volunteer soldiers killed in action, and dumped soldiers in remote locations in Russia without transport home once their contracts expired. Several volunteers who have already returned home from Ukraine stated that they felt "deceived" and treated worse than regular contract soldiers.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Interesting.

I do notice the national media seems to have become bored with this conflict, since there is very little to no coverage on TV now about it, and hasn't been much that I've seen in the last week or two.