The hand of a Russian soldier killed in a Ukrainian attack is seen at a Russian military camp outside Kiiu, Ukraine, on March 31 (local time). Kiiwu = AP News
Russian paratrooper David Artuneyan was killed on the 7th of last month during a clash with Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
He died a day before his birthday, and was born in 2003, making him the youngest Russian soldier to have died until the 31st of last month.
His death shows the reality of war in which beloved conscripts are sacrificed in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade, the British daily The Times reported.
In fact, the news of teenage soldiers who, like Artuneyan, were suddenly conscripted and died following poor training while living a life unrelated to the military, continues recently.
Another deceased, Anatoly Tolshunov, 19, was receiving welding training before being drafted, and Alexei Martinov, 19, a university student in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude.
Ilya Kubik, 18, and Kushinbay Masharov, 19, who were converted to contract soldiers following being drafted, both died during the fighting and were buried in their homeland.
The number of teenagers like these is officially identified as 25, but the actual number is likely to be higher, The Times pointed out.
The newspaper predicted that the number of these teenage casualties would increase further, saying that the Russian military is expected to recruit 134,500 men in the future.
Coincidentally, they are all born following 2000, when Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decided to war, took office.
The Times described it as “born under Putin and died for Putin.”
In this reality, there are also cases of Russian soldiers who refuse to fight recently.
The Ukrainian Army also claimed that the morale of the Russian army was declining, saying that two Russian platoon commanders left the army following refusing an order to engage.
On the 30th of last month, Jeremy Fleming, director of the Information and Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), an intelligence agency specializing in wiretapping and wiretapping in the UK, also said that he had learned that the Russian military had refused orders and even deliberately destroyed munitions.
Russia had previously claimed that conscripts had not been sent to battlefields, but said that it was only on the 9th of last month that some conscripts had entered the battlefield.
According to the Washington Post (WP), Russian conscripts receive only basic training for four months, and according to a presidential decree, they cannot operate outside the Russian border.
As such, many of these conscripts have been persuaded or forced to convert to contract soldiers, and many of them thought they were participating in military training rather than actual war, The Times reported.
Valentina Melnikova, 76, secretary-general of the Russian Military Mothers’ Committee, a Russian military advocacy group, said, “Conscripts are told, ‘Here’s a pen and paper, so you want to switch to a contract soldier.'” Some people are and some aren’t, but they were all sent to the battlefield somewhere,” he said.
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