Disclosure book: Russian ex-soldier reports on the attack on Ukraine

Berlin newspaper Disclosure book: Russian ex-soldier reports on the attack on Ukraine jla - Yesterday at 19:01 | In a 141-page diary-like report, former Russian soldier Pavel Filatiev tells of the war in Ukraine. As a paratrooper in the Russian Army's 56th Air Regiment, the 34-year-old was directly involved in the invasion ordered by President Putin. What he describes in his chronicle could cost the ex-soldiers their lives in his home country. "I see no justice in this war," he told the Guardian at a meeting in Moscow. "We, the Russians, don't feel that what we are doing is right." Filatiev's unit crossed the Ukrainian border from Crimea at the end of February. After about a month under heavy artillery fire - entrenched near the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv - he finally thought, "God, if I survive, then I will do everything in my power to stop this." Filatiev's report cannot be independently verified and primarily contains the subjective experiences of a soldier in the war started by the Kremlin. Still, it does shed some light on how little many Russian soldiers appear to have known about their supreme commander's political decisions when he ordered the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. "It took me weeks to realize that there was no war on Russian territory, that we had just invaded Ukraine," the report reads. Filatiev published this about two weeks ago on the Russian social media platform VKontakte. The book is entitled “ZOV” – the very letters that in Russia have become a symbol of war patriotism fueled by state propaganda. In addition, Filatiev vividly describes in his notes the everyday life of Russian soldiers at the front, which is characterized by fear, hunger and frustration. After a month outdoors, without protection, without a shower, without proper food, the mood had finally changed when the port of Cherson in southern Ukraine was conquered. In the looting that followed, the soldiers were mainly interested in food, in addition to computers and valuables. “We devoured everything that was there like savages: porridge, jam, honey, coffee,” says Filatiev. "We didn't give a damn, since we had already been pushed to the extreme." Rumors about the mistreatment of prisoners had also made the rounds among the soldiers - the ex-soldier, who is now in exile, said he never heard anything about it. In order to somehow escape the war, Filatiev writes, some comrades began to intentionally wound themselves. He himself was injured and sent home from the front with an eye infection. He then took more than a month to write down what he had experienced. As the Guardian reports, the 34-year-old was smuggled out of the country by the human rights organization Gulagu.net shortly after the publication of his book. It is still unclear whether he will be charged with crimes in Russia. However, using the word “war” in reference to Putin's “special military operation” is punishable there. Filatiev's notes are the first detailed account by a Russian soldier involved in the invasion of Ukraine.