What the Russians lack in technical equipment, they can make up for in the number of foot soldiers. This is how Stalin did it in his time, and this is how the Russian army does it today. Playing with soldiers Tor Bukkvoll, who is chief researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute, explains the Russians’ method as follows: – It seems that the hope of the Russian forces in using people in this way is that if you only send enough infantry forward, even if 50 to 60 percent die, then someone will reach through and do damage to the opposition’s side. – The Russians have their own term for this, they call it “meat storm”. Bukkvoll tells news that there is no doubt that the Russians know that many will die in this way. But that they also do it to expose Ukrainian positions. And thus it becomes easier to use artillery to take out Ukrainian positions. Both military and civilian offenders are pressed into the Russian penal unit known as Storm-Z. Very few survive to be told what they are exposed to. But the Reuters news agency has gathered extensive information, and has spoken to sources in and close to the particular unit. – The convicts who have to serve in Storm-Z are seen as a piece of meat. That’s what one of the regular soldiers from army unit 40318 says. He was deployed near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine when intense fighting took place there in May and June. A group of Storm-Z soldiers made a video where they said that they lacked ammunition, food and water. That the injured did not get help and that the dead were left on the battlefield rotting. After the video was published, the soldiers are said to have been beaten up by military police. Photo: Reuters Reportedly ordered to leave the wounded The soldier tells of how he broke orders not to provide medical treatment to a group of six to seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield. He had been ordered to leave the injured there, and claims this shows how the convicts in the squad are seen as having no value compared to ordinary soldiers. The soldier has asked Reuters to remain anonymous because he fears prosecution in Russia for what he says. Bukkvoll says that these battalions are not only filled with former prisoners. Regular soldiers who have broken the regulations are also deployed here. Reuters has tried to get a comment from an officer in the same unit without success. Nor will the Russian defense respond to what comes to light. Storming into death The convicts in the Storm-Z squads often consist of 100-150 men. They are sent to the most vulnerable places on the front in Ukraine. Here they are used to storm the Ukrainian positions on foot. – Only 15 out of 120 men in my unit survived the fighting near Bakhmut in June. This is what one of the group who was recruited from prison where he was serving time for theft told Reuters. The bodies of Russian soldiers at the front line in Andriivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, September 2023. The Americans estimate that around 120,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives since the invasion started last year. No one knows how many of these were former prisoners. Photo: AP Wagner’s method For the Russians, the mercenaries in the Wagner group have been an important actor in the war in Ukraine since 2014. Under their then leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, they started by recruiting convicts for service in Ukraine. Russian killers and other criminals were lured with freedom after half a year as a Wagner soldier in Ukraine. In June, the Wagner commander led his men towards Moscow. He wanted to settle a showdown with the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin claimed that his soldiers were dying like flies in Ukraine because they lacked ammunition and equipment. But before they reached it, they were stopped. Two months later, the Wagner boss and several of his men died in a plane crash, the cause of which is still unknown. Former leader of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recruited soldiers from Russian prisons. The Russians found out how lucrative Prigozhin’s practice was. So they forbade him to recruit prisoners and took over the practice themselves Photo: AFP Redut: The defense’s own mercenaries When the war eventually went badly for the Russians, the defense became desperate for help, thus the Wagner group was connected. Tor Bukkvoll explains that. Now it turns out that the Russian armed forces are recruiting their own mercenaries. They are trying to attract both former Wagner soldiers and Russians who are unemployed or, for example, heavily in debt. Russians also come here who want to participate in the war in Ukraine because they support it. The organization is called Redut. According to Bukkvoll, it was established by the Russian Ministry of Defense in autumn 2021. At the time, they did not have many trained people. They were thus of limited use to the defence. According to Tor Bukkvoll, chief researcher at the Defense Research Institute, the Kremlin will never allow a group like Wagner to gain as much power again. The former Wagner manager, Andrej Trosjev, will be the new head of the group. He has little support within Wagner and is accused of having major alcohol problems. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Threatens to execute his own The Russian Deputy Minister of Justice Vsevolod Vukolov has himself confirmed that the prison population has decreased from 420,000 to 266,000 since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Many were recruited by Wagner, but now they go straight to the Russian Defense as Storm-Z division. – They often get little or no training. And according to some uncertain information, there are supposed to be separate criminal departments that stand behind these forces. They promise that if the soldiers do not go forward, they will be executed by their own, says Bukkvoll. Also listen:
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These take over after the Wagner soldiers in Ukraine – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
