Mobilized soldiers are to plug the Russian defense line. For this they are literally abandoned at the front. Left to their own devices and poorly equipped, they somehow try to survive artillery, drones and missiles. Very few succeed in doing this, as returnees report.
“Of 570 people, 29 remained unharmed, 12 more are injured. The rest is done.” Alexei Agafonov draws this shocking conclusion. He is one of the survivors and is now reporting on the fate of his unit. According to him, he was being prepared for action at the front along with other mobilized soldiers in military unit 2079. However, the commander of the mobilized battalion promised that the newly drafted recruits would be sent to the Swatowo region, where they could join the so-called “territorial defense” – 15 kilometers from the front line. But the commander did not keep his word. During the night of November 1/2, the entire battalion was brought to the battle lines.
“We were thrown into the trenches. We were told to dig in. We had three shovels per battalion, there was no supply at all,” Agafonov told independent Russian media Verstka. “We dug in as best we could. And in the morning the shelling began: artillery, rockets, mortars, drones. We were just shot down,” he said, horrified. And as if that wasn’t enough, the commanders would have abandoned the battalion of mobilized. “When it all started, the officers immediately ran away,” Agafonov said.
“In the pauses between the shelling, we tried to dig in. But the drones spotted us immediately and just shot us.” According to his calculations, only 41 men from his battalion survived. Agafonov is also certain that at least one other battalion of mobilized soldiers had previously been wiped out in the same trenches. He saw dozens of corpses. “On TV we are told that everything is wonderful. In fact, here in the Luhansk region, the mobilized are being thrown to the front.” As the survivors of his battalion retreated, they would have seen that only contract soldiers and volunteers were in the third line of attack. “The mobilized, on the other hand, are thrown forward,” says Agafonov.
Recruits from across Russia would be massed in the Svatovo region to fill the gaps in the defenses. In the city, where the soldiers in his unit have retreated, he observes survivors from other defeated battalions – in groups of two to five people. “There is complete confusion and chaos here. All survivors and newcomers are regrouped into new battalions and thrown to the front to close the line of defense.”
Another mobilizer’s wife supports Agafonov’s report. “He called me in the morning from a strange number and told me what had happened; that they had to dig trenches, were covered by mortar shells and somehow managed to escape from Krasnodon to Svatowo, where they are now hiding,” reported Ludmila Chernykh. “They are scared now to go anywhere. They are scared even to go to the checkpoints. The commanders have failed them and they don’t know what to do. They are just asking for help,” she said.
Last Saturday, relatives of several mobilized people gathered in front of the Voronezh Prosecutor’s Office building and demanded to tell them the truth about the fate of their relatives. “On the phone we are told that our sons are alive and well and doing their duty. How the hell are they supposed to be alive and well if they’re all going to be killed there?” asked a desperate Oksana Kholodova, mother of soldier Andrei Kholodov .
Another mobilizer’s wife, Anna, said the surviving mobilizers only asked to go home. “They can’t be there now, they’re scared. They’re being bombed there. No commanders, nobody there. We want everyone to know what they did to the boys. They were abandoned like kittens, without preparation, without anything .”
Relatives of mobilized soldiers are now hoping for help from the governor and have appealed to him. “We would like to ask the governor and higher authorities for help for our mobilized, who were drafted on October 12 and then assigned to the town of Valuyki, where they were regrouped and sent in the direction of Luhansk,” the video message reads.
“On the day of their arrival, they were thrown to the front line. All the commanders left the battlefield and fled. They said they would return soon, bringing their personal belongings to the mobilized. But after 40 minutes they still hadn’t returned. It started a Shelling with grenade launchers, mortars and other weapons” are the serious allegations made towards the Russian command.
“The battle lasted three days. That’s what the mobilized and, more specifically, my husband reported,” the soldier’s wife continues. “Our fighters survived as they could. With handguns. To be precise, they got four magazines for machine guns or Kalashnikovs and armor vests. They didn’t sleep, didn’t eat. For three days they maintained the defense and are in the Unlike the commanders, they did not flee,” the appeal said. “They were ordered to dig in. But they only had one spade for every 30 men,” added another relative in the video message to clarify the situation in the Russian army.
Now the families of the surviving mobilized soldiers are demanding that their sons and husbands be withdrawn from the front lines. The list they made includes 41 people. Only 31 people have made contact. The fate of the others is unknown.
