Has the Kremlin decided to all but tell its ill-equipped and underprepared troops to kiss their a**es goodbye?
A report by the Daily Beast details how Russian replacements training in the country's Central Military District near Perm aren't hiding their contempt after receiving “protection candles” to ward off evil spirits in the heat of battle.
Unlike combat armor, prayer candles aren't in short supply for Putin's rag-tag conscripts and recruits.
They'll certainly need all the help they can get, with Russia eager to replace its roughly 200,000 military casualties. On a macabre note, plenty of uniforms are available to be recycled.
Commanders are so desperate for a headline-grabbing victory in Bakhmut they've used convict recruits as cannon fodder to reveal dug-in Ukrainian position so that they may be assaulted by more capable Russian units later.
Western intelligence agencies estimate recruits are suffering a 50% casualty rate — an astonishing figure exacerbated by the rudimentary medical care afforded to Russian troops at the front.
And draftees preparing for the Donbas meat grinder are seething, as the Daily Beast notes:
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
“This is some fucked-up shit. I'm more and more astonished by these gags. They gave such candles to everyone in the squadron. What jackass is going to light this in battle, this candle of protection? They somehow can't issue new uniforms or combat boots on time, but distributing candles is no problem,” one soldier told local outlet Perm 36,6.
A photo he provided of one of the candles in question shows that it came with instructions featuring the Russian Orthodox cross and advice to “light the candle in battle” in order to dispel fear and make bullets “not scary.”
The instructions also unironically featured the pro-war slogan, “We don't abandon our own.”
Other men called up to fight in Ukraine from the region also recently complained of being issued uniforms that smell “like they were pulled off corpses and given to us.”
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Yeah, war is inconvenient.
I could ALMOST feel sorry for the Russian troops, but they haven’t tried to tell Putin, “NO!”
Laura, they know very well what would happen to them if they dared open their mouths! Putin is old Soviet KGB. And Russia has always been ruled in a strong totalitarian manner. Democracy and open discussion is to them alien concepts.
Sounds like lambs to the slaughter, and Putin could care less.War is hell.
See Russia doesnt care for its OWN troops