Deception and death on the frontline. Russian POWs reveal the army's ruthless tactics

Russian prisoners captured during conflicts in Eastern Ukraine share what "training" for draftees is really like and what happens within the Russian army. They describe how commanders manipulate their subordinates, training them for battle and deploying them to death through repeated, ruthless "meat assaults".

This strategy was commonly used during World War II and is still employed in Russia.

A year ago, during the clash for Bakhmut, where the Russians were experiencing significant losses, commanders reverted to a tactic that had originated decades prior. In World War II, Russians suffered from a lack of heavy equipment, ammunition, and even weapons. However, they did have millions of soldiers they sent into battle against the Germans.

At the expense of millions of lives, they managed to push westwards, forcing the Nazis to retreat.

Now, "meat assaults" have come to represent the trademark of Vladimir Putin's army. The Kremlin appears willing to employ this brutal tactic for advancement. This was witnessed in Bakhmut, where the Wagner Group and Yevgeny Prigozhin took the city, incurring massive casualty numbers and significant equipment loss.

The Russians now apply the same strategy in Zaporizhia, Avdiivka, and Krynychky. Captured Russian soldiers describe "meat attacks" and their brief two-week training period after compulsory conscription. They talk about firing a few rounds during training and then being dispatched to the front. There, they are promised to only serve in the trenches and will soon rotate out.

This, however, is not the truth. After two or three days, the soldiers are sent to the frontline, where many face death. Over 360,000 have already died, making this one of the deadliest wars in Russia’s history. Projections indicate that up to half a million invaders may have been killed by year-end.