In phone calls to their family and friends, intercepted by the Ukrainian army, Russian soldiers provide evidence and first-hand accounts of failures in battle and civilian executions, as they express anger and disappointment in their leaders, in the early days of the invasion and the attempt to capture Kyiv.
A New York Times investigation exclusively obtained recordings of thousands of calls that were made throughout March and intercepted by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.
“Mom, this war is the stupidest decision our government ever made, I think” says one soldier by the name of Sergey to his mother.
Another soldier, Ilya, asks his partner about what the news back home are saying about the war. His partner responds “He says everything is going according to the plan and the timeline”.
“Putin is a fool. He wants to take Kyiv. But there’s no way we can do it” says another soldier.
The authenticity of these calls have been verified by reporters and cross-referenced with phone numbers, messaging apps and social media profiles to identify soldiers and family members.
In a call, Sergey confesses that his captain ordered the execution of three men who were simply walking by where they were stationed; the New York Times team says this may amount to evidence of war crimes.
“We detained them, undressed them…Then a decision had to be made…If we let them go, they could give away our position....So it was decided to shoot them in the forest” says Sergey in the call.
His girlfriend asks him “did you shoot them?”
“Of course we shot them” he replies.
The team spent almost two months translating the recordings, which have been edited for clarity and length and available for listening.
Yousur Al-Hlou, Masha Froliak and Evan Hill investigated for The New York Times with Rumsey Taylor and Matt Ruby producing it and with translations by Aleksandra Koroleva and Oksana Nesterenko.
Christos Floros covers News and Politics for RTL Today @christosfloros
