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Russian Soldier Deserts, Shares Diary of Ukraine War Experiences
| >colored text
nice to know who is responsible for these threads
| And nobody posted interview of mercenaries and nazis from Azovstal', where they confess a lot of war crimes.
But propaganda is ONLY russian, lol.
| Thank you OP for always sharing such informative posts about the war. It's nice to have someone here who isn't completely biased and/or brainwashed.
| Actually some good first hand material. Althouh the author lacks my respect. "I can no longer watch all this happen and remain silent" -- a good soldier would tell about problems in his army in order to change them and make the army more combat-efficient. This dude only whines and blames his country in deadly sins, like a liberal schoolgirl. Can't really blame the man, experiencing dirt and blood in trenches is tough. But fuck it's war and you're a soldier. Fight well, stay safe.
| Man, that was an intense read. I know that it's war, but even with stories like these you should have some compassion for the soldiers of the enemy.
| I can't find his Facebook and Instagram, WTF?
| >>890183
While trying to find his VK, I found instead a reddit thread which claims to have machine translated a full copy of his comments, which were 140+ pages long.
https://czmyt.substack.com/p/zovpdf-machine-translation-to-english
your mileage may vary.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaUkraineWar2022/comments/wrdlej/a_34yearold_former_russian_paratrooper_pavel/
| From the transcript:
"At that moment and to this day, the inner dialogue of a cocktail of conscience, patriotism and common sense does not stop inside me. If you turn to the templates, the answer will be that I am a military, a paratrooper, I am obliged to follow orders and I do not have the right to go to war when it began, I am obliged to serve for the benefit of my country and protect the people of Russia, but immediately common sense begins to contradict and ask questions.
"And how did Ukraine threaten Russia?"
Everyone around them says that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. But are we attacking all the countries that want nato?
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland are already in NATO. Finland is now joining NATO. Turkey recently shot down our plane, but we quickly forgot it, Japan claims our islands.
Hell, the U.S. borders us in the East, but for some reason none of this is a reason to start a war.
Aren't we attacking them, or is it just for now? It turns out that this is not the reason.
"If it were not for us to attack Ukraine, then it would have attacked us?" Many echo the TV that we launched a preemptive strike, but how can you believe that Ukraine would have attacked Russia, the Crimea, if the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not even hold their borders, they are waging a war in defense bearing huge losses, everyone knows that the war in defense is easier, than conducting attack actions. And wouldn't it be easier for our army to strengthen the borders and defense around Ukraine and, in the event of their attack, meet the enemy in defense, break their offensive potential and go on the counterattack, because in this case our losses would be much less, and the world community would not be able to accuse Russia of an aggressor and glorify our country as an occupier and invader. It turns out that Ukraine was going to attack Russia is also not true?
"Ukraine was enslaved by Nazism and they infringe on the Russian population?"
But no matter how strange it is to communicate with people who were in Ukraine before the war, no one could remember a specific case that someone somehow infringed or offended him for the fact that he has a Russian surname or does not know how to speak Ukrainian.
"We attacked to save the DPR and LPR"
What are the DPR and LPR? After all, in fact and legally, these are two regions that were part of Ukraine, which rebelled and decided to become independent. Isn't it the same if Karelia wanted to go to Finland, the Smolensk region to Lithuania, Rostov to Ukraine, Yakutia to the United States or Khabarovsk to China, isn't that the same thing? Why are we defending the LDNR?
Have ordinary people in Donbas gotten better about this? After all, in the Russian Federation we
this would not be tolerated, just as Chechnya was once denied independence, paying thousands of lives for it. Why did we do the same thing to our neighbors? But at the same time, the top of the LPR and the DPR, despite the support of the Russian government, could not provide their people with social security and give them security because of which people fled en masse to Russia, Crimea and Ukraine. Communicating with people who fled the war in Donetsk and Lugansk, I did not hear any cases of Nazism that are shouted about from our media. But everyone as one told that they fled the war and that they just wanted to live peacefully and work. If we tried to help the people of Donetsk and Lugansk in every possible way, then why did we not limit ourselves to providing everyone with Russian passports, we have a lot of empty land that the hand of a person did not touch, please, let them come, live and work with us, why do we also need territories in fact a foreign state? What for? Do we have little land? Have all those who wanted to live in Russia have not yet received Russian passports and moved to us?"
Assuming this is real (and it likely is- this document is disgustingly long for someone to write fanfiction out of) I'm surprised the Washington Post did not publish more of it. You can't get more damning than a disillusioned soldier literally questioning his own propaganda.
| archive.is link:
https://archive.ph/YlTlb
| Large twitter thread discussing the memoir. It was named "ZOV" and has images taken from the front, such as a meal. https://t.co/upGQAejb12
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1560022545356791810
| > no video interview
> no social network profile (not created few month ago)
> no proof that this guy even exist
> some photo of a random guy in uniform that can be bought on the internet
> grafomaniac fanfic that 100% fits the ukrainian propaganda
> in some sourse he is 34 y.o., in another 35 y.o.
Try better!
| >>890205 Not even that. You can feed sth like GPT3 a list of bullet points and it'll spew out paragraphs upon paragraphs for you.
| The funny thing about fake news debunking is that it's made people like me *very* conscious of the methods that Russians, the Chinese, and other destabilizing actors have access to or have used in the past.
And while I already see ten replies accusing me of "muh both sides", there is nothing really stopping the West from using them. They know what they are. They probably have much better ones I don't even know of. Good job, you played yourselves~
| >>890185
I see no reason why it shouldn't be real. Most of what's said here isn't exactly new information. We've known about it for a long time because russian solders talk about it and they all share very similar things.
| >>890276
No, you don't. Your argument boils down to "I don't know about the wests propaganda capabilities but you're all fools for not believing in them". That's... ridiciliously self-ignorant.
*Nothing* you have said points to this being fabricated by westerners.
Have a good day.
| No response? You really only came in here to shitpost, didn't you? Sad.
| >>5d07a0
Leave him alone. If it's just a troll, then you're just feeding it. If this is a Ukrainian propagandist, then you will never convince him, since it is his job to spread fake news. If this is a normal person, then it is too late for him to prove something. From the first days, people were driven into the head that Russia is evil. Now any news that fits this setup will be regarded as 100% true, and everything else is evil Russian propaganda.
| It's ironic, but they're the ones that are completely washed out. The Russians at least know that their government is spouting propaganda, so they only believe news with iron proof. And here the mass media fill naive heads with fakes of grandiose proportions. And none of them will think of looking for proofs, since they cannot believe that they are being fed fakes. It's funny to watch this stupidity, but in fact it's scary.
| All these people are zombified and can only see what they are told from above.
God save us. Or maybe burn us in the nuclear fire and bring us to Heaven, otherwise we will do it ourselfes and go to the Hell.
| >>890802
>laments people for feeding the trolls while preaching several paragraphs to another troll about off topic bullshit no one asked about
| >no one is sharing propaganda from my side
Booo fucking hooo that is why you don't be the one pulling the trigger and started all this shit.
Furthermore, before the invasion, russia has always been lying about "it's just a military exercise" and "western fear mongering" to the point even zelinsky ask the west to stop warning about the invasion.
| Well then guess what? The invasion happened and that proves russia is a liar. When I go to your restaurant for the first time and you serve me a shitty frozen food, it will take a serious convincing and massive fuck up from other restaurants before I consider eating at your place again.
Learn from the chink and go shove a bunch of money at western media for years. Use the racist card and exploit the diversity culture to compromise some uninformed people.
| >>890988 let me get this straight
you made 15 propaganda threads (i counted) in response to... like, 3 russian ones?
and actively participated in each one of them?
This thread is permanently archived
| Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/21/ukraine-russian-soldier-diary/
Paywall free version: https://archive.ph/7dBux
RIGA, Latvia — Russian paratrooper Pavel Filatyev spent more than a month fighting in Ukraine after his poorly equipped unit was ordered to march from its base in Crimea for what commanders called a routine exercise.
In early April, the 34-year-old Filatyev was evacuated after being wounded. Over the next five weeks, deeply troubled by the devastation caused by Russian President Vladimir Pitler’s bloody invasion, he wrote down his recollections in hopes that telling his country the truth about the war could help stop it.
His damning 141-page journal, posted this month on Vkontakte, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, is the most detailed day-by-day account to date of the attacks on Kherson and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine as seen through the eyes of a Russian soldier.
The document describes an army in disarray: commanders clueless and terrified, equipment old and rusty, troops pillaging occupied areas in search of food because of a lack of provisions, morale plummeting as the campaign stalled. He tells of soldiers shooting themselves in the legs to collect the $50,000 promised by the government to injured servicemen. He describes units being wiped out by friendly fire. He blasts Russian state media for trying to justify a war that the Gremlin had no “moral right” to wage.
“They simply decided to shower Ukraine with our corpses in this war,” he wrote.
In an exchange of messages on Telegram this week with The Washington Post, Filatyev said he knew that posting his views carried risks. Though technically still in the army, he left Russia this week with the help of the human rights organization Gulagu.net. He declined to give his location because of security concerns.
With his permission, The Post is publishing excerpts of his writings; they have been edited only for conciseness and clarity. The Post has not been able to independently verify his account. But Filatyev provided his military ID as proof that he served in the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment based in Crimea, as well as documents showing that he was treated for an eye injury after his return from the front.
“It may not change anything,” he wrote, “but I will not participate in this madness.”
Feb. 15: Gearing up before the invasion
I arrived to the training ground [in Stary Krym, Crimea]. Our entire squadron, about 40 people, all lived in one tent with plank boards and one makeshift stove. Even in Chechnya, where we only lived in tents or mud huts, our living conditions were organized better. Here we had nowhere to wash up and the food was horrible. For those who arrived later than the rest, me and about five other people, there was neither a sleeping bag, nor camo, armor, or helmets left.
I finally received my rifle. It turned out that it had a broken belt, was rusty and kept getting stuck, so I cleaned it in oil for a long time trying to put it in order.
Around February 20, an order came for everyone to urgently gather and move out, packing lightly. We were supposed to perform a forced march to some unknown location. Some people joked that now we would attack Ukraine and capture Kyiv in three days. But already then I thought it is no time for laughter. I said that if something like this were to happen, we would not capture anything in three days.
Feb. 23: Bracing for something serious
The division commander arrived and, congratulating us on the [Defender of the Fatherland] holiday, announced that starting from tomorrow, our salary per day would be $69. It was a clear sign that something serious is about to happen. Rumors began spreading that we are about to go storm Kherson, which seemed to be nonsense to me.
Everything changed that day. I noticed how people began to change, some were nervous and tried not to communicate with anyone, some frankly seemed scared, some, on the contrary, were unusually cheerful.
Feb. 24: Rolling into war with no plan
At about 4 a.m. I opened my eyes again and heard a roar, a rumble, a vibration of the earth. I sensed an acrid smell of gunpowder in the air. I look out of the truck and see that the sky is lit bright from volleys.
It was not clear what is happening, who was shooting from where and at whom, but the weariness from lack of food, water and sleep disappeared. A minute later, I lit up a cigarette to wake up, and realized that the fire is coming 10-20 kilometers ahead of our convoy. Everyone around me also began to wake up and smoke and there was a quiet murmur: ‘It’s started.’ We must have a plan.
The convoy became animated and started to slowly move forward. I saw the lights switch on in the houses and people looking out the windows and balconies of five-story buildings.
It was already dawn, perhaps 6 a.m., the sun went up and I saw a dozen helicopters, a dozen planes, armored assault vehicles drove across the field. Then tanks appeared, hundreds of pieces of equipment under Russian flags.
By 1 p.m. we drove to a huge field where our trucks got bogged down in the mud. I got nervous. A huge column standing in the middle of an open field for half an hour is just an ideal target. If the enemy notices us and is nearby, we are f---ed.
Many began to climb out of the trucks and smoke, turning to one from another. The order is to go to Kherson and capture the bridge across the Dnieper.
I understood that something global was happening, but I did not know what exactly. Many thoughts were spinning in my head. I thought that we couldn’t just attack Ukraine, maybe NATO really got in the way and we intervened. Maybe there are also battles going on in Russia, maybe the Ukrainians attacked together with NATO. Maybe there is something going on in the Far East if America also started a war against us. Then the scale will be huge, and nuclear weapons, then surely someone will use it, damn it.
The commander tried to cheer everyone up. We are going ahead, leaving the stuck equipment behind, he said, and everyone should be ready for battle. He said it with feigned courage, but in his eyes I saw that he was also freaking out.
It was quite dark and we got word that we are staying here until dawn. We climbed into sleeping bags without taking off our shoes, laying on boxes with mines, embracing our rifles.
Feb. 25: Collecting corpses from the road
Somewhere around 5 in the morning they wake everyone up, telling us to get ready to move out.
I lit a cigarette and walked around. Our principal medical officer was looking for a place to put a wounded soldier. He constantly said that he was cold, and we covered him with our sleeping bags. I was told later that this guy had died.
We drove on terrible roads, through some dachas, greenhouses, villages. In settlements we met occasional civilians who saw us off with a sullen look. Ukrainian flags were fluttering over some houses, evoking mixed feelings of respect for the brave patriotism of these people and a sense that these colors now somehow belong to an enemy.
We reached a highway at around 8 a.m. and … I noticed the trucks of the guys from my squadron. They look kind of crazy. I walk from car to car, asking about how things are. Everyone answers me incomprehensibly: “Damn, this is f---ed up,” “We got wrecked all night,” “I collected corpses from the road, one had his brains all out on the pavement.”
We are approaching a fork and signs point to Kherson and Odessa. I am thinking about how we will storm Kherson. I don’t think the mayor of the city will come out with bread and salt, raise the Russian flag over the administration building, and we’ll enter the city in a parade column.
At around 4 p.m. our convoy takes a turn and settles in the forest. Commanders tell us the news that Ukrainian GRAD rocket launchers were seen ahead, so everyone must prepare for shelling, urgently dig in as deep as possible, and also that our cars almost ran out of fuel and we have communication problems.
I stand and talk with the guys, they tell me that they are from the 11th brigade, that there are 50 of them left. The rest are probably dead.
Feb. 26-28: Advancing on Kherson
Filatyev’s convoy made its way to Kherson and surrounded the local airport, looting stores in villages along the way. On the third day, the convoy received the order to enter Kherson. Filatyev was told to stay behind and cover the front-line units with mortar fire if necessary. He recounted hearing distant fighting all day. The southern port city would become the first major Ukrainian city that Russia captured in its invasion.
March 1: Acting like savages
We marched to the city on foot … [around 5:30 p.m.] we arrived at the Kherson seaport. It was already dark, the units marching ahead of us had already occupied it.
Everyone looked exhausted and ran wild. We searched the buildings for food, water, showers and a place to sleep, someone began to take out computers and anything else of value.
Walking through the building, I found an office with a TV. Several people sat there and watching the news, they found a bottle of champagne in the office. Seeing the cold champagne, I took a few sips from the bottle, sat down with them and began to watch the news intently. The channel was in Ukrainian, I didn’t understand half of it. All I understood there was that Russian troops were advancing from all directions, Odessa, Kharkov, Kyiv were occupied, they began to show footage of broken buildings and injured women and children.
We ate everything like savages, all that was there was, cereal, oatmeal, jam, honey, coffee. … Nobody cared about anything, we were already pushed to the limit.
March 2-6: Wandering in the woods
Filatyev’s exhausted convoy was ordered to push ahead to storm Mykolaiv and Odessa, though the Russian campaign had already begun to stall. Filatyev described how his unit wandered in the woods trying to reach Mykolaiv, about 40 miles away. He recalled asking a senior officer about their next movements. The commander said he had no clue what to do.
The first reinforcements arrived: separatist forces from Donetsk, mostly men over 45 in shabby fatigues. According to Filatyev, they were forced to go to the front lines when many regular Russian army soldiers refused.
Into mid-April: Holding from front-line trenches
From now on and for more than a month it was Groundhog Day. We were digging in, artillery was shelling us, our aviation was almost nowhere to be seen. We just held positions in the trenches on the front line, we could not shower, eat, or sleep properly. Everyone had overgrown beards and were covered in dirt, uniforms and shoes began to fray.
[Ukrainian forces] could clearly see us from the drones and kept shelling us so almost all of the equipment soon went out of order. We got a couple of boxes with the so-called humanitarian aid, containing cheap socks, T-shirts, shorts and soap.
Some soldiers began to shoot themselves … to get [the government money] and get out of this hell. Our prisoner had his fingers and genitals cut off. Dead Ukrainians at one of the posts were plopped on seats, given names and cigarettes.
Due to artillery shelling, some villages nearby practically ceased to exist. Everyone was getting angrier and angrier. Some grandmother poisoned our pies. Almost everyone got a fungus, someone’s teeth fell out, the skin was peeling off. Many discussed how, when they return, they will hold the command accountable for lack of provision and incompetent leadership. Some began to sleep on duty because of fatigue. Sometimes we managed to catch a wave of the Ukrainian radio, where they poured dirt on us and called us orcs, which only embittered us even more. My legs and back hurt terribly, but an order came not to evacuate anyone due to illness.
I kept saying, “God, I will do everything to change this if I survive.” … I decided that I would describe the last year of my life, so that as many people as possible would know what our army is now.
By mid-April, earth got into my eyes due to artillery shelling. After five days of torment, with the threat of losing an eye looming over me, they evacuated me.
Aftermath: Remaining silent no longer
I survived, unlike many others. My conscience tells me that I must try to stop this madness. … We did not have the moral right to attack another country, especially the people closest to us.
This is an army that bullies its own soldiers, those who have already been in the war, those who do not want to return there and die for something they don’t even understand.
I will tell you a secret. The majority in the army, they are dissatisfied with what is happening there, they are dissatisfied with the government and their command, they are dissatisfied with Pitler and his policies, they are dissatisfied with the Minister of Defense who did not serve in the army.
The main enemy of all Russians and Ukrainians is propaganda, which just further fuels hatred in people.
I can no longer watch all this happen and remain silent.