{"id":121435,"date":"2023-01-03T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/01\/03\/an-unexpected-glimpse-of-disillusionment-in-russias-trenches\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:08:26","slug":"an-unexpected-glimpse-of-disillusionment-in-russias-trenches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2023\/01\/03\/an-unexpected-glimpse-of-disillusionment-in-russias-trenches\/","title":{"rendered":"An unexpected glimpse of disillusionment in Russia\u2019s trenches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NOVOPETRIVKA, Ukraine \u2014 Few jobs are less enviable these days than that of a Russian mobilized soldier deployed to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Vladimir Putin\u2019s declaration of partial military mobilization on Sept. 21, dozens of videos have emerged showing the dire conditions in which those drafted into Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine are forced to serve. Conscripts have been sleeping under the open sky<\/a>, given paltry food<\/a> and faulty weapons<\/a>, and their officers concern themselves with drinking<\/a> rather than providing any sort of training<\/a> before they are sent to the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet others even further down the socioeconomic pecking order have been forced into service: the men of the Donetsk and Luhansk People\u2019s Republics, the Russian puppet states in eastern Ukraine whose male population was press-ganged en masse this summer. Interviews with locals and documents recently recovered by Military Times from abandoned Russian positions in the former frontline village of Novopetrivka, in southern Ukraine\u2019s Mykolaiv oblast, offer a glimpse of the day-to-day existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located 40 kilometers north of the city of Kherson, Novopetrivka sat in the heart of Russia\u2019s defensive line on the right bank of the Dnipro River for over six months. After Russian troops captured Kherson in the opening days of the war in early March, their advance on the city of Mykolaiv was repulsed by Ukrainian defenders. They quickly settled into Novopetrivka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military Times visited the village on Nov. 12, just two days after its liberation by Ukrainian forces. The signs of occupation were fresh, particularly a series of Z\u2019s – the symbol of the Russian campaign – spray-painted on tractors and other vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The Russians] came on the 27th or 28th of February,\u201d said Viktor, a 50-year old villager. \u201cColumns were passing through the village night and day, as they attacked Mykolaiv. But then our guys beat them there [at Mykolaiv], and they ran back here and entrenched. There was a heavy battle here – a tank was destroyed over there, my house was hit by a shell – but [Ukrainian forces] couldn\u2019t push them out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these early days, the Russians were interested in attempting to win over the local populace. Viktor and others in Novopetrivka describe good treatment and genuine friendliness shortly after the occupation. But the mood quickly shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The Russians] could see that we were not interested in their propaganda,\u201d Viktor said. \u201cThey started to lose their temper, especially as they could no longer beat [Ukrainian forces] on the battlefield. By the summer, they were regularly taking people for torture – most of them simply disappeared,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also resentment among different sections of the Russian and pro-Russian forces stationed in Novopetrivka, with stark differences in living conditions leading to tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Russians [and Donetsk\/Luhansk troops] were living in the trenches, doing the actual fighting,\u201d Viktor says. \u201cBut in the village itself, Chechens and Buryats were staying in people\u2019s houses, not fighting at all. They would just go around the village and rob as they pleased and threaten anyone who tried to stop them – both locals and Russians. The Russians did not like them at all,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trenches themselves start on the northern outskirts of Novopetrivka, an extensive series of positions arranged in two lines. Scattered around the trenches are the standard assortment of basic supplies: discarded cans of food, dirty clothes, and packets of medication of dubious quality. One item, however, offers a more insightful look at the conditions of life there: a serviceman\u2019s half-filled notebook left in one of the sleeping bunkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the notebook\u2019s contents are mundane. Many pages list food rations or patrol schedules. But one contains a full description of the size and disposition of the unit located there. \u201c2nd Rifle Company, 57 people,\u201d the opening line reads, revealing that this was an infantry unit without armored vehicles – likely drawn from mobilized or volunteer personnel. The next lines tell that there are 16 people per subunit, of which 27 are currently resting after duty, doing upkeep work like cleaning and repairs. There is also a grenade launcher platoon, from whom five people are presently at combat posts with nine others doing chores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other pages of the notebook provide further clues as to the unit stationed here. On one sheaf, a series of phone numbers of other men in the unit are listed. All of them begin with the Russian international calling code +7, but more interesting is the area code for each: 990. A quick search reveals that this area code was issued<\/a> by two Russian telecoms companies beginning in May 2022 for the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhye regions. That these soldiers were using personal cell phones for military communications – and forced to write down their comrades\u2019 numbers on paper – is another indictment of the paucity of basic equipment these soldiers had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the most interesting page yet captures the mood of the soldier who owned it. There is a crude poem scrawled in Russian, lamenting the \u201ccivilian guys on their fancy motorcycles [back home],\u201d the ones who did not come to the war. \u201cFuck you, I fought hard,\u201d the author repeats several times, also saying that he \u201cdid not get buckets of unearned medals.\u201d The text itself has numerous spelling and grammar errors, of the sort a Ukrainian speaker of Russian might make – suggesting heavily that the author is a native of the occupied Luhansk or Donetsk oblasts, in Ukraine\u2019s east. It\u2019s clear that he was not particularly pleased with the lot he found himself in – and that he had little love for those meanwhile enriching themselves in peaceful Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the sacrifices of the author and his comrades were in vain, as they were forced to abandon their hard-defended positions. Viktor, the local man, says the withdrawal was just as surprising to the Russian servicemen as it was to Novopetrivka\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were shocked,\u201d Viktor says, when asked how the Russian and LNR\/DNR troops in the village responded to the withdrawal. \u201cThey had been telling us, \u2018Russia is here forever,\u2019 and suddenly it turns out the opposite,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then, they never really knew what they were doing here in the first place. We are fighting for our land. They are simply dying as slaves for Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former frontline village of Novopetrivka, in southern Ukraine\u2019s Mykolaiv oblast, offers a glimpse of the day-to-day existence for Russian 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