Cache of Letters to Russian Military Prosecutors Show Horrific Face of Moscow’s War Effort in Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 12 – The Insider portal has come into possession of a cache of complaints sent to the Russian military prosecutor’s office not only about how Russian soldiers are being treated but also about how the Russian military in Ukraine is behaving. It has now published a 9,000-word selection of them.

            They make for horrifying reading. As the portal notes, “conscripts have been deceived or coerced” into service in Ukraine, soldiers haven’t been provided with normal food or medical care, professional soldiers have been violating military regulations in the hope of being sent home, and relatives are unable to learn about the fate of their sons, brothers, and husbands (theins.ru/politika/252097).

            But what may be most important about this collection of documents is that the complaints of Russian citizens point to just how much looting and other atrocities are being perpetrated by Russian troops. Below is the complete text of one letter on that subject that was sent to military prosecutors:

“Hello, I would like to address you once again with a request to resolve the situation of atrocities and looting by the Russian military. My parents live in the DNR, Donetsk region, in the village of Lyubovka, at 1 Sovetskaya street. For 8 years we have been in the territory controlled by the DNR, we are citizens of the Russian Federation, my grandparents are Russian, former citizens of the USSR.

“But the atrocities by the Russian military that my relatives experienced must not be concealed. Shortly before April 9 Russian formations came to our village and were stationed not far from our house. When on April 8 GRADs started shelling their positions, my parents got down on the floor, and after waiting the shelling out, went to a hamlet nearby to wait out the alarming situation.

“The next day, when my mother returned home in the morning, she saw atrocities in our garage ... a large tank had knocked out our gate, demolished a huge slab that served as our fence, demolished a huge hangar gate in the garage, which later fell on the cars that were in the garage, Moreover, they stole spare parts and tools worth 200,000 rubles. They even took small change from our ca, and a condom from my brother's car. Tell me, are they even human?

“When my mother went there and asked why they done all this, the officer rudely sent her away and told her to go back where she came from... They are hiding behind our backs. Have they come to defend us or to rob and kill us? I repeat, my parents have been living in the DNR for 8 years and have never seen such atrocities. Are these their defenders?”

            If this is what Russian troops are doing to ethnic Russians and Russian citizens, one can only imagine what they are doing to Ukrainians.