32/ In another case, a very upset soldier told his mother: "We have no one, no one to advance, do you understand? Eight people to take a village! Eight, mom! Against them – 500 [Ukrainian] people entrenched in concrete! And [we] have eight people without any support at all!"
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
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Infantry shortage: specialists on front lines
The army's desperate shortage of frontline infantry led to specialists being assigned to infantry roles. Viktor Shyaga, a soldier with the 752nd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment who subsequently wrote about his experiences on LiveJournal, says:
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Infantry deployment despite reconnaissance roles, including sensor specialist.
28/ "We were all put into infantry, despite the fact that two were meant to be in reconnaissance. One of them was a sergeant, an observation method specialist for various sensors, cameras."
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Significant Losses in One Unit: Commanders and Officers Dead, No Replacements
25/ Normally, depleted units would be replaced through rotation or restored through individual reinforcements, but in some cases, neither seems to have happened. A soldier complained that in his unit "the company commander died, all the officers and everyone".
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Soldier decries low unit strength, criticizes leadership’s data.
24/ One soldier in a severely depleted unit said: "They have data hanging on the wall in the headquarters – that our brigade’s staffing is 87%. Can you believe what these faggots are doing? We won’t even have fucking 10% here! Fuck this shit!"
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Pertes d’équipement sévère en Ukraine
16/ Equipment losses were just as severe. A soldier told his mother: "We should have around 90 tanks but we’ve got, you know how many? We have around 14 tanks left, if all combined together from a regiment. From a regiment we have 14 tanks left."https://t.co/KUxpI1zwGH
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) 6 août 202216/ Equipment losses were just as severe. A soldier told his mother: "We should have around 90 tanks but we’ve got, you know how many? We have around 14 tanks left, if all combined together from a regiment. From a regiment we have 14 tanks left."
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Officers perish, leaving unit with no leadership or drivers.
15/ One unit was left with "no officers because many have perished now. Officers, fifteen officers were here, specifically ours. Fifteen of our officers have perished. Basically, there’s a shortage, and due to this shortage, there are no officers, no drivers, there’s nobody."
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50 tanks burned, 15 survivors out of 300 in river crossing battle
13/ A battle (perhaps the disastrous attempt to cross the Siverskyi Donets river in May) described by another soldier resulted in "one night, 50 tanks were burned. Imagine, 50 tanks were burned." He was one of only 15 survivors out of 300 people.
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Survivor’s account of the 1st platoon
There were 107 people, 10 remain. Of them, 4 have left, leaving 6 of us. From the 1st platoon, I am the only one left. In the 1st platoon, we started with 22 people, and I am the sole survivor.
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Soldiers describe catastrophic losses in Ukraine
11/ Many calls feature soldiers describing catastrophic losses in their units. One described the destruction of his company (normally around 100 men): "It’s completely fucked. In our company… 10 people are left."