Almost an entire regiment of mobilized Russian troops have reportedly died after they recorded a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin saying they were being sent “to be slaughtered” in Ukraine.
The soldiers from Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia said they were “illegally” placed under the command of Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and asked for Putin’s help dealing with their “lawless and criminal orders,” according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Please help,” the soldiers say in the video while in their uniforms with their faces covered. “There is nowhere else to turn.”
Relatives of two of the soldiers told reporters that nearly the entire regiment was destroyed between February 28 to March 1 after they were sent to storm Ukrainian fortifications near occupied Donetsk, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberian branch reported.
Some of the troops are wounded but the rest have died and are marked as “missing,” the outlet said.
The draftees said they were sent to the Donbas region in Ukraine and put into assault units within a day and ordered to attack the city of Avdiivka without any support, heavy weapons, or preparation, according to the Russian outlet Meduza.
“Command told us directly that we are expendable and that the only chance we have of returning home is getting injured,” the soldiers say in the video, per Meduza.
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