Russia ran much like a dictatorship where the people are kept in the dark and drowned in state-run television misinformation. So it’s no surprise that Russian soldiers were caught off guard when they invaded Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian President Putin wants the world to believe that his actions are justified and that his troops are not attacking civilians. Messages from one soldier who was confirmed dead by Ukrainian officials tells the real story.
Photos of the texts were released earlier by the Security Service of Ukraine on Telegram (an instant messaging service) and published in the Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform. The circumstances surrounding the soldier’s death were not disclosed, other than it occurred in combat. Kyslytsya said the texts were sent “several moments before he was killed.”
In the exchange that has only been verified by Ukrainian sources, the soldier tells his mother, in Russian, that he is no longer in Crimea doing training exercises. When his mother asks if she can send him a parcel, he says “the only thing I want now is to hang myself.” He goes on to explain that he is in Ukraine, where there is a “real war.”
“I’m scared, we’re hitting everyone, even civilians,” he wrote. “We had been told that people would welcome us here but they jump under our vehicles, not letting us pass. They call us fascists. Mom, it’s so hard.”
“If you want to just visual the magnitude of the tragedy, you have to imagine next to you, next to every name plate of every single country in this general assembly, more than 30 souls of killed Russian soldiers already,” said Kyslytsya, when he finished reading the text messages. “Next to every name of every single country in this assembly, 30 plus killed Russian soldiers. Hundreds of killed Ukrainians. Dozens of killed children. And it goes on and on and on.”
According to Reuters, at least 64 civilians have been killed and more than 160,000 are on the move after Russian troops entered Ukraine this week, a United Nations relief agency said.
“As of 5:00 p.m. on 26 February, (U.N. human rights office) OHCHR reports at least 240 civilian casualties, including at least 64 dead,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a status report,
It added the actual figures were likely to be “considerably higher”.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.