Sibir Realii [Siberia Realities] project reports that unprepared draftees who served in the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 1439th Regiment (stationed in Russia’s Irkutsk Oblast) were sent to storm the city of Avdiivka, not far from Donetsk; almost all of them were killed.
On 3 March, the relatives of the two mobilised servicemen told journalists that the whole regiment was virtually destroyed: several people were injured, and the rest were killed but were considered missing.
“My [husband] called – [he suffered] a shrapnel wound, [he is] in hospital. He says nothing left of the regiment. It is known only about two wounded, others either killed or left there in severe condition. He will only be given a week [to rest]! And then he will be thrown to the frontline again,” the wife of one of the mobilised soldiers said.
Irkutsk’s officials went to the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine, where the mobilised soldiers complained about their command. They intend to “set contacts” with the regiment.
On 27 February, the mobilised ones sent their third appeal to Vladimir Putin with a complaint about the command of the so-called “DPR” [the non-recognised “Donetsk People’s Republic”].
According to soldiers from the “Sloviansk Brigade” of the occupation troops, they are being sent to assault without qny intelligence, communication, and artillery support, and they are threatened with persecution for desertion after complaints that they “cannot execute the order”.