On Monday, October 23, the Ukrainian military intelligence published on Telegram allegedly intercepted recordings of a phone conversation. In this conversation, a Russian soldier is said to have reported to his mother about the defeats of the Russian armed forces, as reported by the German news website Merkur.
According to this, Russia suffered significant losses in defending the areas it had conquered in Ukraine. The soldier particularly mentioned the village of Iwaniwka in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson as a position that was especially difficult for Moscow to take. He said, ‘There’s such a massacre going on there! More than a thousand were killed there. The first and second battalions were thrown forward – there are hellishly many 200s [Russian military code for dead], even more 300s [code for wounded].’
From the conversation, it is clear that the soldier has doubts about Russia’s strength: ‘This whole forest landing in front of us is littered with dead soldiers. They can’t even take Iwaniwka! It’s ridiculous that they still mention the conquest of Nowoseliwka or even Kupjansk; that must be a joke!’ According to the Kyiv Post, the soldier stated that due to its well-fortified positions, Ukraine has a significant advantage. When Vladimir Putin’s forces send out a unit of 20 soldiers, only ‘two or three come back.’
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (24.06.2023), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
.jpg){kind=link}