2024-09-21 00:25:24
Russian military bloggers were outraged by the news of the deaths of two prominent and experienced drone operators. Before they were killed, they made videos in which they claimed that their commander pushed them into direct combat at the front. The case has received so much attention that the head of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, is said to be overseeing the investigation.
A Russian drone reconnaissance specialist, Dmitry Lysakovskii, harshly criticized the commander before his death. | Video: Aktuálně.cz/X/WarTranslated
In a posthumously released video, both operators said they were privates assigned with an assault unit on a suicide mission. It was supposed to be a punishment for arguing with their commander, writes the American server Business Insider.
Members of the 87th Rifle Regiment fighting at Pokrovsk, Dmitry Lysakovsky and Sergey Gritsai, accused their new commander, Igor Puzyk, of disbanding their unit after they argued with him when he sent members of their team to the infantry.
According to them, Puzyk also facilitated the drug trade in his unit and falsely reported successes on the battlefield. In addition, Lysakovskii made a separate video in which he accused the commander of being under the influence of a soldier who maintains contacts with Ukrainian intelligence. “Lying is the norm. I’m recording it in case I don’t come back from the attack, and only then will this report have any weight,” Lysakovskij said.
He later said in another video that he was going to attack with the unit and called on the Russians not to enter the war. “Your task is to die here so that the commander of the regiment, who reports to higher authorities, looks good. These are his personal slaves,” said Lysakovskii, who already fought on the side of Donetsk separatists in 2014. Both videos were published last week on Friday by the “Northern Wind” Telegram channel.
Some Russian bloggers later published Lysakovsky’s text messages. “There are no supplies, no maps, no minefield plans. Nothing,” Lysakovskij wrote on September 10. Dozens of commentators condemned the circumstances of the deaths, with some calling for a ban on the assignment of specialists such as snipers or drone operators to infantry units.
“The very fact of reassigning an effective reconnaissance drone crew to assault infantry under current conditions is, to put it mildly, sabotage,” wrote Russian pro-Kremlin journalist Alexandr Kots. Other well-known bloggers claimed that this is not an isolated case. According to them, it is increasingly happening that Russian commanders are wasting valuable specialists on direct frontal attacks.
According to political commentator Svyatoslav Golikov, this problem has become systematic in the army due to the lack of soldiers on the battlefield. “This particular case will be solved. But only because it caused a stir,” the Telegram channel Two Majors added to the death of two drone specialists.
The youngest Russians are joining the army headlong. Commanders have no mercy on them. (Full article with video here)
This is how the war in Ukraine is explained to Russian children Video: Facebook/Standa Nývlt