The attack on Kyiv in March does not go as planned for Russia. The “New York Times” now publishes intercepted telephone calls by Russian soldiers from that time. The recordings not only bear witness to the looting and violence against civilians, they also document the frustration within the troops.
According to the New York Times, the Ukrainian government recorded thousands of phone calls from Russian soldiers to relatives and friends in the first weeks of the war, who sharply criticized the war in Ukraine. The newspaper published numerous recordings, which are said to come from the Kiev suburb of Bucha, where Russian troops killed hundreds of civilians. According to the newspaper’s records, it was verified that reporters had compared the Russian phone numbers with messaging apps and profiles on social networks.
One of the soldiers described how he “became a murderer” in Bucha: “We were ordered to kill everyone we see.” His unit shot three men who ran past a Russian camp. They wanted to keep the position of the troops secret. A few days later, in another phone call, he said there was a “sea of ??corpses.” “I’ve never seen so many dead bodies in my damn life. It’s completely insane. You can’t see where it ends.”
According to the New York Times, the recordings also document the frustration of Russian troops during the invasion. “Putin is a fool. He wants to take Kyiv. But it’s impossible to do that,” said one soldier. The troops’ equipment was inadequate: everything was “ancient” and some men looted the equipment of killed Ukrainian soldiers because it was “better,” according to other recordings. A soldier also reported that his unit had been fired upon by his own troops because they were mistaken for Ukrainians. Several men recounted that their regiments were drastically reduced: “There were 400 paratroopers. And only 38 of them survived. Because our commanders sent soldiers to the slaughterhouse.”
According to the New York Times, various men said they didn’t know what to expect in Ukraine. “Nobody told us that we were going to war. They warned us one day before we were going to leave,” one of the soldiers told his mother. Many assumed that the operation was a military exercise, but “we were fooled like children,” criticized another. “They want to deceive people on TV,” can be heard in another recording. “They say: ‘Everything is fine, this is not a war, just a special operation.’ But the truth is it’s a real fucking war.”
The soldiers also reported looting in Ukrainian towns. “All the alcohol was drunk. And the cash was looted. Everyone does that here,” says one recording. “What kind of TV do you want? LG or Samsung?” a soldier asked his girlfriend over the phone.
In the footage published by the newspaper, a soldier said that a large proportion of the troops were already beginning to have doubts about the war. “We haven’t seen a single fascist here,” he told his mother. The war is based on false assumptions, nobody needs it. “We came here and people live a normal life.” Everyone would think the same thing: “There was no need for this war.”
