Russian Troops Are Now Turning on Each Other

[Jilly_in_VA]

Two Russian soldiers have been caught venting about Putin’s “bullshit” war against Ukraine in an intercepted phone call as devastating losses reportedly led one soldier to drive over his colonel with a tank.

“Basically, it’s a shitshow here, I’ll put it that way,” an unnamed soldier near Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine can be heard telling a colleague in a recording released by Ukraine’s Security Service late Tuesday.

After telling his friend that Ukrainian forces “tore apart” a column of Russian forces sent along with his own unit, he described complete disarray among the Russian military, with 50 percent of the unit suffering from frostbite on their feet.

“But they don’t plan to treat them in the [field] hospital,” he said.

On the fourth day of their deployment, he said, the general commanding the unit, General-Lieutenant Yakov Rezantsev, told them it’d be over quickly.

“Do you know what he told us? ‘It’s no secret to anyone that there are only a few hours until this special operation is over.’ And now those hours are still going.”

He said soldiers are complaining about having Kevlar vests that lack the hard-armor panel, but they are ignored.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-troops-are-now-turning-on-each-other-its-a-shtshow-one-soldier-is-recorded-telling-another?ref=home

[yellowdogintexas]

1. My father nearly lost his feet due to the frostbite he suffered

in the Battle of the Bulge in WW2.

As a corporal, he became the highest ranking member of his team due to deaths of the higher ranks. He led his communications team through feet of snow in the coldest winter in decades and received a Bronze Star for his service.

If these troops are suffering frostbite already, this is not good.

[FalloutShelter]

4. Frostbite among the ranks almost cost Washington

Valley Forge.

[Evolve Dammit]

23. Great man. That is a hero.

[yellowdogintexas]

28. Thank you. nt

[FalloutShelter]

2. ..." devastating losses reportedly led one soldier to drive over his colonel with a tank."

Interesting... I've been wondering how much fragging has been going on.

[lagomorph777]

5. Seriously. That is going to be an increasing problem.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. I'd say this is more like "flattening". nt

[MissB]

19. .

Very funny, despite the morbid topic.

[Maraya1969]

3. I remember learning about WW1 (I believe) that Russian soldiers get frostbite because they were

wearing inadequate clothing. Putin hasn't learned anything it appears!

[herding cats]

6. They dropped a bomb on their own troops?

It’s such trash here… our own plane dropped a bomb on us,” he said.

Did they mistake them for a hospital or a shelter?

[DanieRains]

20. That Was Catch 22

Oh wait...

[maxsolomon]

7. Amazing that a military that destroyed Sunni Syria

could be so organizationally deficient on open, frozen terrain. Did they not understand what anti-tank weapons could do? They've existed for 80 years.

But then again, not that amazing since much of the budget was siphoned off by corruption and exists as villas in Cyprus and empty apartments in Trump properties.

[BComplex]

8. Same kind of corruption that found our own troops unprepared with proper equipment

when we invaded Iraq (for no reason). Our soldiers didn't have kevlar vests, bullets, all kinds of things they needed. Donald Rumsfeld said "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want".

ALL republicans are assholes. They aren't born from a vagina. They come from an asshole, and it forever looks like home to them.

[maxsolomon]

10. It's not the same corruption. The scale isn't even close.

The US was far more prepared and organized to conquer Iraq - it was the Iraqi insurgency that exposed deficiencies in armor, ammo, etc.

I don't think US Generals were pocketing the money Congress appropriated for Kevlar vests and buying yachts with helicopter pads.

[DanieRains]

21. Republicans Are Spawned In Hell From What I Understand

Remember the Orc Brooding Pit on Lord of the Rings?

That is how Republicans come into the world.

[halfulglas]

9. Ah yes, I forgot about some of that "all the money we need from Russia"

Consist of apartments in Trump Tower and condos in Florida and other Trump properties from relatives of the oligarchs.

[patphil]

11. Officer run over by a tank? Sounds like the Russian soldiers have further refined fragging.

I expect more frostbit soldiers will be taking matters into their cold hands as this war continues.
Not treating frostbite renders those soldiers ineffective, and could permanently cripple them.
This is going to cause morale to crater. Especially when the rest of the Army finds out how badly prepared their military leaders were for war, and how poorly their comrades were treated.

[Dawson Leery]

12. Losers turning on each other.

Just maybe they will kill themselves off and let Ukraine be free.

[cojoel]

13. I told you we shouldn't have killed Colonel Niedermeyer

Not quite a quote from The Twilight Zone movie

[Buns_of_Fire]

14. Squishing your CO with a tank is certainly one way to make your displeasure known. nt

[Aristus]

16. I'll say.

It's 180 in the U.S. Army. Armored battalion commanders are usually, but not always, highly admired and respected by their tankers. This is because they are required to demonstrate the same tank crew fire proficiency as the enlisted men and junior officers. Lieutenant Colonel is the highest ranking officer that gets to command his own tank. Higher than LTC, a commander in the field usually stays with the mobile command post, or has an armored reconnaissance vehicle instead of a tank.

Granted, a battalion commander has the luxury of hand-picking his gunner, driver, and loader. But he still has to weld them into a skilled crew if he wants to score well on the live fire requirements. My battalion commander in Germany was greatly respected by the entire unit. No one would ever dare to even think about running over him with a tank.

[roamer65]

15. These morons even bombed a Rosneft owned oil refinery in Eastern Ukraine.

Rosneft is a Russian oil company.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Someone was holding out on his cut for Putin. nt

[eppur_se_muova]

22. I saw it mentioned very briefly that many of the conscripts are from (very) rural Eastern Russia.

They might not have a lot in common with, even hold some resentment, against more cosmopolitan Moscow-area troops and officers. Of course, they were probably picked for a similar reason -- fewer ties with Ukraine, through family, business, or travel than those West of the Urals (Russia's big dividing line).

China did something similar when they sent troops from "the provinces" to Tiananmen Square.

[housecat]

24. i'm sorry but I can't stop laughing about a Russian soldier that ran over a colonel with a tank.

a Russian colonel!

[Hekate]

25. Putin's war plans are tanking, I see

[liberalla]

26. I shared this with a coworker yesterday and we both laughed about the tank running over the colonel

[Coventina]

27. Behold the garden in which I grow my fucks

and see that it is barren.

(no pity)