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The shocking footage reported to have been taken by a Russian soldier in early October shows a group of men in army fatigues huddled together in a damp, dark basement after being “arrested” for disobeying orders. The spokesman for the conscript moans about the threat of being sent to “the meat grinder,” and describes Ukraine as the “slaughterhouse” as he points out the filth the unit is forced to live in.
The disgruntled conscript tells the camera: “Well, here we are. They arrested us, this is October 2 2022, we are part of the third battalion of the 488 motorised Rifle Regiment. We were arrested for refusing to follow orders. Yes, refusing to follow orders.
“They sent us to a basement of a military unit, all of us are mobilised, the soldiers of the Russian army called up by decree of the president.
“They are threatening to send us back to the meat grinder to the slaughterhouse to get routed by the enemy, we refused.”
He warns his comrades to cover their faces as he pans the phone around the room to show the squalor.
“This is where we go to the toilet,” says the man pointing to a plastic bucket.
“This is how we sleep, what a life.
“Everything here is moulded, we are basically living like bums, and you can see that there’s something leaking from the ceiling here as well.”
The apparent collapse in discipline amid hastily mobilised Russian troops comes as Putin’s forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson.
“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”
Of the four provinces Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed annexed in September, Kherson is arguably the most strategically important.
The city controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula Russia seized in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro, the vast river that bisects Ukraine.
Yuri Sobolevsky, a member of the ousted pro-Ukrainian Kherson regional council, said Russia-installed authorities were putting increasing pressure on Kherson residents to leave the city and head towards Russia.
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