21/ "Soldiers from other units who don't know us, if you give them our regiment number, they say: "Guys, you are being nullified. That's the way it is." His wife Vera says that the soldiers and their relatives are afraid to go public with their concerns about the situation.
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Mother-in-law urges wives and mothers to spread news of mobilized soldiers lacking weapons
22/ She says that her mother-in-law "wrote to the group of mothers and wives of the mobilised 94th regiment that our guys are in a difficult situation. That they have no weapons. And she suggested that this information should be "spread" on social networks.
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Artillerymen forced into infantry assault without ammo, casualties high
19/ "But the command claims that they are. "We've got 25 men going out on a mission, six coming back. Now we have artillerymen going to the assault. They were told – you don't have ammunition anyway, go with the infantry. And the guys don't know what an assault is.
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Russian commanders’ false claims of control lead to suicidal attacks in Andriivka.
17/ He blames the commanders' insistence on ordering obviously suicidal attacks on their false claims that they have not in fact lost control of Andriivka. It's likely they've also made such claims to their superiors, in another example of the Russian military's culture of lying.
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Retreat impossible: ‘blocking units’ ordered to shoot deserters, soldiers face death
15/ Retreat is impossible, according to Denis, because commanders have positioned 'blocking units' behind the front line to shoot any retreaters. The men believe that they will be killed whatever happens, by one side or the other.
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Quote: “So what?” – indifference to known problems
14/ "This is perfectly well known to everyone. And when you tell the command that this is exactly what is happening in this direction, you are answered "so what?" That's a quote: "So what?""
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Soldiers ready to fight with support, not to die in vain.
16/ Denis says that the men "are not in the mood to die for nothing. If there is artillery support, co-operation with other units, and there is no ammunition famine, then everyone is ready to fight. But nobody wants to fight like this."
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Enemy artillery and troop movements in the village, AFU blocking exits.
13/ "Although [the commanders] themselves know very well, and there is video confirmation, that the enemy is constantly working throughout the village. The AFU artillery is working constantly. They send men into the village, but they will not let them come out.
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Men sent on ‘meat assaults’ with no expectation of survival in Andriivka
12/ Now the men are being sent on 'meat assaults' which they are not expected to survive. "The orders are to take over [Andriivka], take what's left of it. Rubble, to put it crudely.
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Artillery inaction due to lack of shells or destruction of Ukrainian targets.
10/ "You give the coordinates to our artillery, what targets we need to work on. And the artillery does not work, because they have no shells." (It's possible that the artillery itself may have been destroyed – Ukraine has been targeting it heavily – rather than lacking shells.)