Wheeled Warriors and Crippled Combatants: The Shocking Use of Injured Soldiers by Russia in their Battle for Ukraine
Disabled Russian Soldiers Equipped and Deployed for Combat Operations
In the chaos of battle, the line between life and death can be blurred. But in the Russian army, it seems that line is often intentionally crossed - and crossed again. From suicidal attacks on Ukrainian positions to the deliberate deployment of injured soldiers, the lives of these soldiers are treated with little regard.
A chilling video making the rounds on social media features a soldier, a member of a motorized Russian rifle regiment, speaking out against this inhumane practice. He claims that his unit, riddled with men severely injured in battle, are nonetheless sent into charging assaults. Regardless of their missing limbs or grievous wounds, these soldiers are listed as healthy, according to the soldier's testimony on the X-channel of the military blog ChrisO-wiki. Desperate, he appeals to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov for help - a slim hope amidst the horrors of the front lines.
While the video's authenticity cannot be confirmed independently, it is disturbingly similar to other reports and evidence that have surfaced. Ukrainian drone footage has already captured several clips showing wounded Russian soldiers on the battlefield, struggling to move forward on makeshift crutches or dragged by their comrades. One particularly harrowing clip, shared on the Telegram channel of Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butussov, shows a soldier dragging himself out of a wheelchair and dragging himself along the ground.
The tactic behind this callous disregard for soldiers' wellbeing appears to be twofold. Ukrainian officials suggest that Russia is using wounded soldiers as living targets, aiming drones at defenseless wounded men to learn the locations of Ukrainian forces. Another theory is that Russia is squeezing the last ounces of fighting strength from their soldiers before they reach their end. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian center for combating disinformation, suggests a grim alternative - Russia's wounded soldiers are dispatched to locate enemy positions by crawling towards them, often meeting gruesome ends.
The digital outlet ntv.de has verified several of these videos, adding credibility to these horrifying accounts. In another video from Ukrainian strategic command Chortyzia, a soldier on crutches struggles to navigate a perilous barbed wire fence, his progress captured in Barnes-Wallace-style footage.
In a particularly revealing investigation published by the Russian exile medium Meduza, a soldier who lost sight in one eye claims that he was still made a grenadier by the Russian military. Another soldier, having lost a leg in battle, was "recuperated" in a hospital, only to be returned to the front lines when he'd healed enough, according to the journalist cooperative Bereg. But the so-called "Recovery Regiment" is anything but. Bereg reports, citing two contract soldiers, that the goal is not the recovery of the fighters but to send them back to combat "like living meat."
Despair echoes through the soldiers' voices, their words speaking volumes about the futility of their situations. One soldier states, "People are sent here under the promise of therapy, but they're usually not here long enough to receive treatment and they just go back to the military special operation... With hepatitis, HIV, no arms, no legs, with shrapnel in the head. I knew someone who had three fingers of his left hand severed. He was sent back - and a week later he lost half of his right arm. But that's no problem - they'll give him a prosthetic, and then he'll be sent back," he says. "He'll keep fighting until he looks like the Terminator."
This callous treatment of their soldiers, these human beings, has profound ethical and humanitarian consequences. Moreover, it raises questions about the motivation behind Russia's invasion of Ukraine, whether desperation, a lack of resources, or something else entirely. These grave practices must be addressed and condemned by the international community, for the sake of the soldiers and the future of the greater Ukrainian region.
The community and employment policies of the Russian army are under scrutiny due to the shocking use of injured soldiers in the battle for Ukraine. Disregarding the wellbeing of its soldiers, the army sends severely injured soldiers back into combat, treating temporal recovery units as a means to send them back to the front lines like "living meat." This practice, part of a grim two-pronged strategy, raises concerns about the motivation behind Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demands international condemnation, as it has serious ethical and humanitarian implications.
In light of the ongoing war-and-conflicts in Ukraine, the questionable policies of the Russian government regarding its soldiers and overall politics should be a topic of general-news and crime-and-justice.
