Russian Soldier Talks of 'Sure Death' on Flooded Dnieper Islands

Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire a mortar over the Dnieper River toward Russian positions, in an undisclosed location in the Kherson region, on November 6, 2023. In a new video posted online, a Russian soldier complained of being positioned with undesirable conditions on an island in the Dnieper.

In a video posted on Tuesday, a Russian soldier detailed the harsh conditions he said his unit faces at their position on the islands of the Dnieper River in Ukraine.

The video showed the Dnieper’s waters rising up onto the Russian camp, and the unnamed soldier criticized his military commanders, saying a “sure death” would come for troops placed on the islands.

The soldier’s video was first posted on Telegram, but WarTranslated, an independent media project that translates materials about the Russia-Ukraine war into English, later shared the clip on X (formerly Twitter).

Newsweek could not independently verify the video and reached out to Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Tuesday night via email for comment.

WarTranslated frequently posts videos of Russian soldiers airing their grievances with Russian President Vladimir Putin or his military leaders. Last week, WarTranslated’s X account shared a video from a group of Russian soldiers accusing their commander of giving them an assignment in the hopes that it would kill them.

The soldiers in that video alleged the commander wanted them dead to cover up his past mistakes that resulted in other troops dying. They said the assignment was a deployment to the islands of the Dnieper. It is unclear if any of the soldiers in last week’s video appeared in Tuesday’s clip.

In the more recent video, the soldier showed his hut to the camera, pointing out how things were in disarray after it was recently flooded.

“All sleeping spaces are underwater,” he said, according to WarTranslated’s English subtitles, before pointing to the ground. “Somehow, guys manage to lay there.”

The soldier then gave an indication of the hopelessness he felt about his surroundings by saying he doesn’t care about drone attacks from Ukrainian forces.

“Yesterday, it was snowing. This was all we managed to save,” he said as the camera focused on a small pile of weapons on a bed.

After showing the waters outside his tent, the soldier then seemingly addressed his commander(s).

“Oh, f****. Where are you sending the guys, for real? To a sure death?” he said.

In the caption for the original Telegram post where the video was pulled by WarTranslated, the author indicated that soldiers on the island are suffering through “the most difficult conditions.”

The caption added that communications and artillery on the island have been in “vain” and referenced an ongoing “issue” with the unit’s boats.

The Telegram message also noted that the “selection of personnel for operations on the islands also raises questions,” adding Russia often recruits “bad guys” for such assignments as a form of punishment.

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