“If you bastards don’t answer me right now, I’ll open fire on you with a tank.” WELT publishes intercepted Russian military communications
In the recordings provided to WELT by the Ukrainian military, commanders can be heard threatening their soldiers and forcing them into assaults.
“I swear, none of you will come back until you take this settlement. No one,” one commander says.
Ukrainian troops also claim Russian soldiers are not allowed to retreat: those who turn back risk being shot by their own forces.
In other intercepted conversations, soldiers complain about hunger and thirst. One says they had to drink their own urine, while a Ukrainian intelligence officer claims some Russians even talked about eating cats because they had no food.