Russian Defense Minister Told To Shoot Himself As Failures In Ukraine Mount

After Russia’s multiple failures to advance against Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was indirectly told to shoot himself on Thursday in a video posted on Telegram.

According to The Washington Post, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow's proxy administration in Kherson, said in the video that the performance of Russia has been so poor that any real officer would kill himself.

“Indeed many people say that if they were the Minister of Defense, who brought things to this state of affairs, they would shoot themselves, if they were real officers,” Stremousov stated. But the word officer is incomprehensible to many," Stremousov said.

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels circulated a video on Thursday that showed hundreds of newly drafted and mobilized Russian soldiers complaining about being kept in “cattle conditions,” being forced to buy their own food and being issued old weapons. One soldier even waved a thermometer in the camera seemingly telling people that recruits are starting to get sick with fevers.

Drafted soldiers under the mobilization launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin have been airing their situation in the bases.

Artem Kovrignykh, 20, a former McDonald’s employee who recorded one of the videos being circulated told independent news outlet ASTRA that a Russian colonel asked them to line up on Wednesday and told them they are going to be deployed to Ukraine the next day. However, most men refused for they are being sent without any training.

“We came to Belgorod region, where the training was supposed to take place. But instead of training, we were trying to survive,” Kovrignykh said. “We put up our own tents and found our own food. At first, we tried to discuss this with our officers. But no one listened to us. We got no answer.”

According to Kovrignykh, they tried to explain their situation that they are being sent to Kyiv unready. “We had no uniforms. I have a helmet and flak jacket. My soldiers didn’t. I couldn’t send them off like that. Then, how would I explain to their mothers why they died?”

Most men were only issued the bare minimum necessities such as a summer uniform, a mug, a spoon and a small thermos, but were not trained at all. Kovrignykh said, “That’s all. No dry rations, bulletproof vests, helmets, or flasks. The uniforms were mostly the wrong size. So were the boots. The guns jam after every reload. These are weapons from the ’70s and ’80s.”

Russia’s military leadership has been in disarray the past weeks setting up more political problems for Putin as he tries to mask setbacks.