25 July 2023 , 13:41
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Russian soldiers fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine have given a rare insight into their brutal life in the trenches.
Stories of repeatedly being shot, drinking melted snow to live and being blinded by grenades are just a few examples that have been unveiled by survivors fighting in the war.
One man, identified only as Sergei, survived eight months on the frontlines with the brutal Storm-Z unit and has recounted in remarkable detail the savage and deteriorating life he lived.
He claims he was concussed nine times from artillery shells landing nearby and was repeatedly shot. He said troops were discarding their bulletproof vests as they barely even helped to protect them against oncoming fire.
Stories of repeatedly being shot, drinking melted snow to live and being blinded by grenades are common (CNN)"They don’t help against shells, since their [Ukrainian] artillery strikes with high accuracy", Sergei told CNN.
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Sergei said that of his original unit of 600 prisoners recruited in October, only 170 were still alive (a survival rate of less than a third) and all but two of them were wounded. The now-shell-shocked fighter said discipline was maintained through executions.
He said: "Sometimes the commander ‘reset’ people. He zeroed them out and killed them. I only saw it once – a fight with a man who stole and killed his own people in the trenches. I didn’t see who of the four people around him shot. But when he tried to escape, a bullet hit him in the back of the head. I saw the head wound. They carried him away."
Sergei also described the conditions on the frontlines, living off tinned meat with instant noodles and having to walk over two miles for drinking water.
"Sometimes we didn’t eat for several days, we didn’t drink for several days", he told the broadcaster that in winter they would survive by drinking melted snow.
CNN also spoke to the mother of one convict, Andrei, who was jailed aged 20 on drug charges and sent to the front line as part of the Russian military’s prisoner recruitment program.
She said: "He didn’t remember the amount of money he was offered, said he hadn’t checked. So, I didn’t see any financial interest in him. It was just about freedom. He had a long term, nine-and-a-half years, and he had served three."
Yulia later learned from the relatives of the other prisoners recruited that up to 60 men, including her son, had died in one assault on May 9. The date is significant in modern Russian history as it marks the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
"The hardest part was that I was afraid, he would kill someone. Because I can live with my son as a drug addict, but with my son as a murderer – it was difficult for me to accept it," Yulia said tearfully.