How do people grow up with no sense of right and wrong and end up engaging in horrific acts of violence against others?
That’s the humanitarian mystery at the heart of 2,000 intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The calls, obtained by The Associated Press, offer an intimate new perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s years-long war, seen through the eyes of Russian soldiers themselves.
The AP identified calls made in March 2022 by soldiers in a military division that Ukrainian prosecutors say committed war crimes in Bucha, a town outside Kiev that became an early symbol of Russian atrocities.
They show how deeply unprepared the young soldiers – and their country – were for the war to come. Many joined the army because they needed money. They were told that they would be hailed as heroes for liberating Ukraine, which Russian officials falsely claimed from Nazi oppressors and their Western backers, and that Kiev would fall without bloodshed within a week. Will go
The intercept shows that as the soldiers realized how much they had been misled, they became more fearful. Violence that was once unimaginable has become normal. There were moments of rare respite from looting and drinking.
They tell their mothers what this war really looks like: about the teenage Ukrainian boy whose ear was cut off. How the scariest sound is not the whistle of a rocket taking off, but the silence, which means it’s coming straight at you. How modern weapons can destroy the human body so there is nothing left to bring home.
This is the story of one of those men, Leonid. The AP could not reach Leonid directly, but did speak to his mother in Russia. AP is not using his full name to protect his family. The AP has no evidence of his personal actions beyond his own testimony.
The AP confirmed these calls with the help of the Dossier Center, an investigative group in London funded by Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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Revealed will air never-before-heard audio of Russian soldiers on the front lines of Putin’s war in Ukraine in a joint production set to air Saturday, February 25.
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Leonid
Leonid became a soldier because he needed money. In the call, there is a clear moral dissonance between the way Leonid’s mother raised him and what he is seeing and doing in Ukraine. Nevertheless, she defended her son, insisting that he never came into contact with civilians in Ukraine.
“No one thought it would be this terrible,” his mother told the AP in January. “My son just said one thing: ‘I have a clear conscience. They fired first.’ That is all.”
He refused to listen to any intercepts: “It’s absurd,” he said. “Just don’t try to make it look like my kid killed innocent people.”
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ONE: If you don’t want to die, then kill.
Leonid’s introduction to combat came on 24 February, when his unit crossed into Ukraine from Belarus and destroyed a detachment of Ukrainians at the border. After their first battle, Leonid feels pity for the young Ukrainian soldiers he had just killed.
Leonid: “We fired from tanks, machine guns and rifles. We were not harmed. We destroyed four of their tanks. Dead bodies were lying all around and were burning. So, we win.
Mother: “Oh what a nightmare! Lyonka, you wanted to live in that moment, right honey?”
Leonid: “More than ever!”
Mom: “That’s totally awful.”
Leonid: “They were lying there, just 18 or 19 years old. Am I different from them? No, I’m not.”
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Two: The rules of normal life no longer apply.
Unprepared for a long assault, the Russian troops ran low on basic supplies. One way to get what they wanted – or needed – was to steal.
When Leonid casually tells his mother about the robbery, at first she doesn’t believe he’s stealing. But it has become normal for him.
As he speaks, he sees a city burning on the horizon.
“Such beauty,” he says.
Leonid: “Look, Mom, I’m looking at hundreds of houses—I don’t know, dozens, hundreds—and they’re all empty. Everyone’s gone.
Mother: “So everyone is gone, right? You guys are not robbing them are you? You’re not going to other people’s houses?
Leonid: “Of course we are, Mom. Are you nuts?”
Mother: “Oh, you are. What do you take from there?”
Leonid: “We take food, bed linen, pillows. Blankets, forks, spoons, pans.”
Mother: (laughs) “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Leonid: “Who has none – socks, clean underwear, T-shirt, sweater.”
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Three: The enemy is everyone.
Leonid tells his mother about the terror of going on patrol and not knowing what or who they will encounter. He describes using deadly force against almost anyone at the slightest provocation.
At first he did not believe that Russian soldiers could kill civilians.
Leonid tells her that civilians were told to flee or take shelter in the basement, so whoever was outside must not be a real civilian.
It was a war of the whole society. Mercy was for the suckers.
Mother: “Oh Lyonka, you’ve seen a lot there!”
Leonid: “Well … the citizens are lying on the street out of their minds.”
Mother: “Oh my god, you mean the local people?”
Leonid: “Yes. Okay, like, yes.
Mother: “Is it the one you guys shot or the one…”
Leonid: “Killed by our forces.”
Mother: “Lyonya, they can just be peaceful people.”
Leonid: “Mom, there was a fight. And a guy would just pop up, you know? Maybe he will take out a grenade launcher … Or we had a case, a young man was stopped, his cell phone was taken away. They had all this information about us in their telegram messages – where to bomb, how many we are, how many tanks we have.”
Mother: “So they knew everything?”
Leonid: “He was shot right there on the spot.”
Mother: “Hmm.”
Leonid: “He was 17 years old. And that’s it, right there.
Mother: “Hmm.”
Leonid: “There was a prisoner. It was an 18 year old boy. First he was shot in the leg. Then cut off his ears. After that, he confessed everything and they killed him.
Mother: “Did he accept it?”
Leonid: “We don’t imprison them. I mean, we kill them all.
Mother: “Hmm.”
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Four: What has to be done to go home alive.
Leonid tells his mother that he was almost killed five times. He says things are so chaotic that it is not uncommon for Russians to open fire on their own soldiers. He says that some soldiers shoot themselves just to get medical leave.
In another call, he tells his girlfriend that he’s jealous of his friends who get shot in the legs and can go home.
“A shot in your leg is like four months at home with crutches,” he says. “It would be wonderful.”
He promises to bring home a collection of pills for the children. “Trophies from Ukraine,” he calls them.
His mother says she is waiting for him.
“Of course you will come,” says his mother. “No doubt. You are my darling. Of course, you will come. You are my happiness.”
Leonid returned to Russia in May, badly wounded, but alive. He told his mother that Russia would win this war.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)