Russian Soldiers Appeal to Putin Over Military Failures: 'Fascism Among Us'

A group of Russian soldiers who volunteered to fight in Ukraine have complained about their commanders in a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin.

Since the start of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, there have been numerous reports of low Russian troop morale in which video messages to the president have criticized a lack of training, equipment and the actions of their superiors.

The latest appeal shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko shows a group of seven soldiers he said were from the 5th Company of the 3rd Battalion of Russia's 7th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment.

An unnamed serviceman in the middle of the front row addressed the camera, and described how he and his comrades had resorted to a direct plea to the Russian president because they had found themselves "in a difficult situation."

He said they had voluntarily signed a contract with Russia's Defense Ministry on May 11 and were told they would be on the second and third lines of the front.

But he said that after initial training, "we realized we had been deceived" and that after the first assault, "we realized something was going wrong," with wounded soldiers being left to lie on the front line for several days.

While his group evacuated the casualties, promises by the company commander that he and his comrades would eventually get provisions, food, water and rest in camps away from the front line were not kept.

"We go out on various assaults on various tasks assigned to us by people we have never seen," he said. "They are leading us to our slaughter," he added, noting that only 25 troops were left out of the company's original 110 men.

"Every day, our guys return injured," he said. "The best case scenario is if they come back injured." Pointing to his comrades, he said that "every person here now is happy to be out of this hell, away from the scum that gives us such orders."

"I fear for my life," he said, as he described how when carrying out tasks "our own artillery and mortars hit us."

"Why is this attitude towards us? We voluntarily signed these contracts to eradicate this fascism but in the end, fascism is among us and is trying to eradicate us by any means necessary," he added, referring to one of the Kremlin's justifications for the invasion, which was to "denazify" Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment about the unverified and undated video in which no location was given.

Next to the clip, Gerashchenko wrote how the men had "suddenly realized that they were simply being 'nullified' by their commanders, whom they had never even seen in person, and decided to appeal to Putin. Good luck with that.

"They seem to be OK with going to another country to kill, they just don't want to get killed themselves," Gerashchenko added.

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