Ukraine’s military intelligence service uploaded a video to YouTube on Thursday of a telephone conversation between a soldier from the Moscow-backed and self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and his wife. During the telephone conversation, the soldier described the disorganization and chaos among the Russian soldiers, using an insult to call Putin’s forces idiots and comparing the soldiers’ internal battles with those that erupted during World War I. “As during the war against Potemkin, at night, support came to them to help them, and they started shooting themselves, the Russians are shooting Russians, they are being destroyed,” he says. The separatist is also said to be criticizing the Russian generals for not understanding the situation on the ground. “In short, they fucked us up for everything,” the fighter reportedly said. The separatist fighter also complains that Russian forces do not allow them to rotate outside the front lines. “I just want to get us out of here,” he said, adding that he believed the Russians were not letting soldiers out of the front lines because they were afraid they would leave and never return. “Nobody goes home, because they will not go back,” he said. “And most importantly, they are right, because even the guy from the 33rd regiment said, ‘this is a one-way ticket, I’ll leave and I’ll not come back.’ “ Russian troops have been accused by Ukrainian officials and Western states of committing war crimes and other atrocities against civilians since the early days of the war. During the four-month conflict, civilians, journalists and officials documented and reported cases where Russian troops directly targeted Ukrainian civilians with their brutality. Among the horrors are summary executions and the rape of civilians, as well as indiscriminate bombing of residential areas and hospitals. Ukraine and the West have pledged to prosecute any alleged war crimes.
The soldier’s wife is heard on the phone saying, “the rapes and everything that happened there in Ukraine were done by the Russians,” but she explains that some say the Russians are not capable of that. “They are capable of everything,” the soldier replies. Translations by Nikita Angarski.