It’s not just Ukrainians resisting Vladimir Putin’s horrific war of conquest: Russians, including his own soldiers, are increasingly against him too.
Russian soldiers have begun sabotaging their own vehicles and surrendering in droves, the Pentagon reported Tuesday. “Not all of them were apparently fully trained and prepared, or even aware that they were going to be sent into a combat operation,” said a senior Defense Department official.
Radio clips intercepted by ShadowBreak, a British intelligence firm, capture the sounds of Russian troops crying in combat, refusing to obey orders and complaining of supply shortages. Some claim they had no idea what to expect when it came to fighting in Ukraine.
Another recording features a soldier refusing to fire artillery on an area until all civilians had left.
This helps slow the advance of forces including that infamous 40-mile convoy of tanks and armored vehicles near Kyiv.
Even Russia’s oligarchs have started to squawk. Mikhail Fridman, founder of Russia’s largest private bank Alfa Bank, became the first Russian businessman to speak out against the conflict Friday, calling for an end to the “tragedy” and “bloodshed.”
“I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both,” he wrote his staff. “This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years.”
And The New Voice of Ukraine reports that Russians inside the FSB (the successor to Putin’s own KGB!) gave the Ukrainians intelligence on the two Chechen assassination squads sent to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and others, allowing the Ukrainians to “neutralize” the threat.
As dissent grows in Russia, Putin’s own chances of surviving this war shrink.