Jan 9, 2024

• Russian soldiers are so badly equipped they’re stealing from each other, a report said.
• The wife of a soldier said clothes and basic equipment went missing when soldiers were on missions. 
• Problems with logistics and corruption have long beset the Russian military in Ukraine. 

Russian soldiers are so badly equipped that they’re resorting to stealing clothing, backpacks, and razors from each other, the wife of a serviceman told Radio Liberty.

A woman identified as Tatiana told a Russian-language branch of the outlet about the harsh conditions Russian soldiers faced when deployed to Ukraine.

She said that her husband, Sergei, had joined the Russian military in July to provide for their family, attracted by the relatively lucrative salaries the Kremlin introduced to boost recruitment.

But the lack of basic equipment was apparent during his arrival on the front line, Tatiana told Radio Liberty.

“When they were taken out on their first mission, they didn’t even have shovels. They were just dropped off in an empty field and that was that,” she said.

“They don’t get anything in there, no gloves, no warm underwear, no ammunition,” she added. “They didn’t even give them shovels. But they did give them body bags.”

She said Sergei had to spend a significant part of his monthly income, about three times what he earned as a civilian, on clothes and basic supplies.

Out of desperation, soldiers “loot from their own people,” Tatiana told the outlet.

“One guy had his warm gloves stolen while he was going to the formation,” she said. “Another lost his backpack with a new, warm suit when he was on a mission. He came back from combat alive, but the backpack was gone. He asks where it is, and they tell him it burned.”

She said her husband also had everything stolen and that she had heard of others getting their phones and money stolen on trains while they were on their way to their units.

“Some of them still don’t have any way to get in touch” with anyone, she said, adding: “You’d think they’d all be together, and then this happens. They steal from their own. How can this be?”

The Russian military has long been beset by logistics issues and corruption, with reports saying mobilized troops and recruits arrive on the front line to find they lack basic equipment.

Russia has suffered steep casualties in Ukraine, leading it to boost the pay of recruits, sign others up as contractors, and mobilize thousands of civilians last year, leading thousands of men to flee the country fearing enlistment.

The wives and family members of servicemen have in the past tried to raise awareness of the conditions soldiers face on the front line.

In recent weeks, a group of the wives of servicemen held protests in Moscow, calling for the military to rotate soldiers away from frontline fighting or demobilize them, Agence France-Presse reported.

Reports have said some recruits are made to serve beyond the time their contract expires, and other stipulations of the deal they sign with the Russian military, such as pay and conditions, are routinely violated.

But Tatiana told the outlet many wives were wary of speaking out, believing their husbands could be targeted for punishment by their own side.

“Some women think that we should ring all the bells, while others ask us not to write anything,” she said. “They say that if complaints come in, their own commanders will shoot them and write it off as war losses.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-soldiers-stealing-clothes-razors-backpacks-from-each-other-report-2024-1