23/ At least one soldier a week committed suicide. Others deliberately injured themselves in an effort to get sent to hospital, but were instead thrown into a pit until they admitted they had shot themselves and pledged that they were ready to "atone for their guilt with blood".
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
-
Injured soldiers sent back to assault by political officers and commander.
24/ Injured men were brought from the pit to Zhilyaev's medical battalion, where they would be bandaged, injected with antibiotics, "and then, by decision of the division political officers, with the consent of the division commander, sent to assault. And that's it [for them]."
-
Soldiers punished by being tied to trees or thrown into pits in harsh winter conditions.
21/ Other soldiers are tied to trees for days at a time as a punishment. In Ukraine's harsh winter climate, open-air punishments can be hazardous. pic.twitter.com/BRjq0UAyBt
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) 2 février 2025
One one occasion, a political officer ordered a lieutenant he disliked to be thrown into a pit.21/ Other soldiers are tied to trees for days at a time as a punishment. In Ukraine's harsh winter climate, open-air punishments can be hazardous. One one occasion, a political officer ordered a lieutenant he disliked to be thrown into a pit.
-
Survivors of penal battalion recount hourly assaults in Zaporizhzhia
18/ Zhilyaev later met two convicts who had been part of what was probably a penal battalion. "They had a company [of] a hundred men in the Zaporizhzhia direction. There they were sent to storm every hour. The platoon runs out, the next one is sent. Only these two crawled out."
-
Russian commanders’ brutal treatment of soldiers, suicidal assaults due to personal vendettas
15/ Zhilyaev says that Russian commanders treat their men brutally, sending individual soldiers into near-suicidal assaults on the basis of personal animosity or, in one case, because a commander objected to a man being unshaven.
-
Ukrainian/Russian soldier loss ratio 1:7 in combat, according to testimony
14/ "And they start to encircle them. An assault detachment of 15 people left, three came out, the rest stayed there. That’s usually how it goes. I can tell about losses in general by the ratio of evacuated bodies of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, [which is] 1 to 7."
-
Ukrainian soldiers reportedly assemble drones on the front lines using 3D printers.
11/ "There really are a lot of drones. The guys once took a position and said: the Ukrainians have a 3D printer, control boards, motors there. And they assemble drones right on their front."
-
Two medics saved by a second stretcher
They covered him with a second stretcher and jumped into another dugout, saying, "We want to live too."
-
Ukrainian drone swarms overwhelmed Russian soldiers, rendering EW ineffective.
7/ Although the Russians had electronic warfare systems, they often weren't effective. Zhilyaev says there were entire "swarms" of Ukrainian drones in his sector, averaging five per Russian soldier. Men were killed within minutes of arriving at the front line.
-
FPV drone attack with TNT block instantly turns 18-year-old soldier to dust
8/ "A guy, 18 years old, [had] 20 minutes at the front, an FPV drone flew at him with a TNT block – that was it. They turn [you] to dust straight away. It’s the same at our “zero” [base].