Russian soldier says his comrades took armor off Ukrainian corpses because 'NATO armor is better than ours', according to audio obtained by The New York Times

According to a new investigation from The New York Times, Russian soldiers were already complaining about their equipment just weeks after the conflict started.

A collection of unauthorized phone calls made by Russian soldiers during the month of March was published by the outlet. The unsanctioned communications were made from a series of shared cell phones among several military units close to the front lines.

The excerpts of the recordings were published by The Times.

Many of the men said their superiors lied about the nature of the war. Early insight into aspects of Russia's strategy and implementation that have contributed to mounting military losses can be found in the March recordings.

The soldiers were dissatisfied with a lack of equipment. One man, identified by his first name of Sergey, described in a call to his girlfriend how some of his fellow soldiers tried to address the issue.

He said that some guys took armor off of dead people. Our armor is not as good as NATO's.

Roman replied to his friend's question about abandoned equipment with the same sentiment.

The soldier said that everything here is old. They don't show it like they do on Zvezda.

Mass burials and decimated units were described by the men.

There were hundreds of soldiers. Sergey told his mom that only 38 of them survived. Soldiers were sent to the slaughter.

Russia has had problems with manpower and equipment in Ukranian. Russian forces have lost tens of thousands of armored vehicles since the war began. Soviet-era equipment such as T-62 tanks have been pulled out of storage.

The Russian military was thought to be one of the most powerful in the world. The conflict has changed the perception of Russia's military power.

Western countries have provided billions of dollars in military aid to the Ukrainians.

The US alone has given over $16.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February.

More than doubling the number of weapons already provided to Ukraine will be included in a new US security assistance package.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week called up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to help address Russia's personnel problems in Ukranian. Military experts and Russia watchers don't think it will make a difference in the war because of Russia's lack of military infrastructure.