A video clip shared on Twitter this week appears to show Russian soldiers abandoning a barracks in protest over their living conditions.
In #Russian Kazan another riot of mobilized #Russians
The soldiers, dissatisfied with their confinement, decided to just go home. It is not yet clear exactly how many of them deserted, but judging by the video we are talking about at least a few dozen soldiers. pic.twitter.com/L0LOoFyHsQ
— Ukraine Alert?? (@alert_ukraine) December 2, 2022
The clip, shared by multiple war tracker accounts on Twitter, allegedly shows Russian soldiers in the Russian city of Kazan who were conscripted in Putin’s most recent partial mobilization of troops.
“The soldiers, dissatisfied with their confinement, decided to just go home. It is not yet clear exactly how many of them deserted, but judging by the video we are talking about at least a few dozen soldiers,” the war tracking account Ukraine Alert wrote on Friday.
The video was shared by War Translated, a war tracking account with over 200,000 followers, accompanied by a description.
According to the account, the video shows mobilized troops mutinying because they are not allowed to see their relatives or take any leave.
“A video emerged that allegedly shows mobiks in Kazan mutinying in protest as they are not allowed to see relatives or to go on leave. The original source deleted the video,” the post reads.
The video shows soldiers walking out of the barracks, pushing past security guards, and breaking open the gate.
Towards the end of the video, one of the guards can be seen grappling with a soldier, prompting the rest of the men to turn around and charge toward the guards.
Russian military leaders have struggled to maintain high morale among soldiers both on the battlefield and on the training grounds in recent months.
According to a translation of a Telegram post made by Bostok Battalion commander Aleksandr Khodakovsky, also shared by War Translated, Russian military officials believe that the poor performance of the Russian military in Ukraine is not a result of incompetence or a failure of Russian leadership, but of a lack of time to prepare.
“By all indications, our society also has reasons to believe that the task seemed easy, and this was the reason for choosing this method of solving it,” Khodakovsky said.
“But I am both afraid and want to know someday as a result of some kind of leak that our government was aware of the possible consequences, but the reasons left them no choice. And these reasons are not even as important as the understanding that the lack of readiness for the operation and the need to get going along the way are not a consequence of incompetence, but a consequence of lack of time.”
Russian Propaganda Shows Troops Training Near Kazan
Video footage shared by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows soldiers practicing their shooting skills at a facility near Kazan.
The video, recorded from the ground and the air, shows Russian soldiers learning how to strike targets at distances of 100 and 400 meters.
The video presumably shows soldiers stationed at the Kazan barracks training to be deployed to Ukraine.
The grounds near #Kazan were lit with the sound of gunfire by mobilized #Russians!
➡️Watch https://t.co/66hl6GfwC9#Russia #РоссияСмотри #RussianArmy #mobilization #WarInUkraine
— Viral Tab (@ViralTabNews) December 3, 2022
19FortyFive could not independently verify the videos.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor.
