A Russian soldier who was in Ukraine early in the war said his unit stole computers, clothes, and food from the captured city of Kherson. They were just trying to survive.
A former member of the Russian military's 56th Airborne Infantry, Filatyev is currently a member of the Russian Airborne Forces. In early August, he published a lengthy memoir on social media about his experiences in the war in his country.
In an excerpt from his memoir that was published and translated by the Guardian, Filatyev describes how his exhausted, underfed, and poorly equipped VDV unit arrived in early March at Kherson, which was the first major city to fall to Russian forces.
Filatyev said the soldiers who arrived in Kherson looked "worn-out and feral" and began to runsack the city. He said that some people grabbed things that were worth more than their salaries.
Filatyev said his unit ate everything they could find. He said that soldiers were fighting over a chance to shower while trying to find a place to sleep.
We had already been pushed to the limit. The ex-paratrooper wrote that most had spent a month in the fields without any comforts.
Filatyev said in his memoir that it was possible to drive people to a wild state by not giving thought to the fact that they needed to sleep, eat and wash. Everything around made us feel bad.
We were just trying to survive.
Filatyev realized that he was a part of it all. The command didn't seem to care about the people who were giving everything to carry out their plans. They ignored the fact that people need to sleep, eat, and take a shower.
In an interview with the Guardian from Moscow, Filatyev detailed experiences from his 141-page memoir, "ZOV." Filatyev's account of what happened in Kherson has not been verified by Insider.
After weeks of fighting in southern Ukraine, Filatyev said he was almost blinded by an eye disease. He ran away from Russia this week.
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