Russian soldiers fleeing the city of Izyum near Kharkov left letters reflecting fatigue and disappointment in the war between Moscow and Kyiv.
A post of decisive importance for Russia, the city of Izyum served as the base of Russian troops in Kharkov, which is about 120 kilometers away. In a counteroffensive last month, Kyiv forces recaptured more than 300 settlements, including Izyum, from where Russian soldiers withdrew. Behind were boots, uniforms and even colorful postcards drawn by Russian children. But it is the letters left by the soldiers that reveal the true war demoralization.
Ten letters dated Aug. 30, found by the Ukrainian military in the home and accessed by The Washington Post, paint a picture of discouraged soldiers desperate for rest and health concerns after months of fighting.
“I refuse to fulfill my duty in a special operation on the territory of Ukraine due to the lack of vacation days and moral exhaustion,” wrote the commander of an anti-aircraft missile platoon in the Moscow region. Another soldier asked to be released from duty, citing deteriorating “health and failure to receive necessary medical care.” The third one said that experienced “physical and moral exhaustion.”
The complaints don’t stop there: some members of the military complained that they were being denied leave for family reasons, including get married and witness the birth of a child.
The ten letters appear to have been written in the same way, suggesting that they were written at the same time.
Letters contrast with words of support from Russia
Letters describing the lack of will on the part of Russian soldiers contrast with a pile of letters from students from a town near Moscow calling on troops to fight.
“Hello, I don’t know who will receive this letter, but I know that you are going through a very difficult time,” wrote a girl named Nastya. “That’s why I want to support you. Maybe you’re hungry, you’re cold, you want to go home with your family, or maybe you want to go back to your childhood friends.”
“I really appreciate the hardships you are going through,” the boy Pasha wrote, adding that he was in the fourth grade at a school in the city of Mytishchi, north of the Russian capital. “I’m grateful that we live under clear blue skies.”
In another letter, Heydar writes: “I see how you are fighting in Ukraine. I want your family to be very proud of you. I hope they end up winning and if they have children they will become heroes in their eyes.“.
Escape on foot or by bike and with clothes stolen from civilians
Izyum had been under Russian rule since the beginning of the war and was recaptured on September 10 by Zelensky’s army. When the Ukrainians began to storm the city, the Russian soldiers managed to destroy everything they could on the way out: they set fire to the town hall building, planted explosives on the part of the military equipment they planned to abandon, and blew up the strategic bridge.
Shortly before the Ukrainians retook the city, Russian troops imposed a 24-hour curfew. entered the homes of civilians and searched closets for clothes not to be seen in uniform. Some fled on foot or on bicycles.
Now in the city the picture is apocalyptic. Almost all buildings are damaged, if not destroyed. The shops were completely looted. Ukrainian troops were deployed throughout the city, some of them directing traffic away from roads blocked by abandoned vehicles and across a hastily assembled floating bridge to replace the destroyed bridge.
Numa unexpected visit to Izyum On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine would fly “in all cities of Ukraine.”
