'You'll die in this pit': Takeaways from secret recordings of Russian soldiers in Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, audio intercepts obtained and verified by The Associated Press indicate. Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s — people who refuse to fight.
These conversations also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions.
The verified the identities of people in the calls by speaking with relatives and soldiers — some of whom are still at war in Ukraine — and researching open-source material linked to the phone numbers used by the soldiers.
AP has withheld names and identifying details to protect soldiers and their families. The conversations, picked up in January 2023 — some from near the longest and deadliest fight in Bakhmut — have been edited for length and clarity.
As they called home, the deadliest season of the war was just beginning. Tens of thousands of Russians were about to die.
Now, as Moscow scrambles to replenish its troops, the voices of these soldiers come as a warning. These are men living off rainwater, who have killed people with knives, who know that the only thing that's kept them alive is luck. Forgotten and exhausted, they want to go home.
THE PROFESSOR Nicknamed «Crazy Professor» because of his disheveled hair, he was swept up in the first days of Russia's September 2022 draft. He worried that he might have killed children. Now he is AWOL and haunted by visions of the dead.
«I imagined that there, on the other side, there could be young
