Russian soldiers said they were 'fooled like little kids' and 'no one told us we were going to war,' audio obtained by The New York Times shows

According to audio obtained by The New York Times, Russian soldiers were fooled and didn't realize they were going into war.

The recordings of Russian soldiers' calls were published by The Times. It took months for the outlet to translate and verify the authenticity of the recordings.

We didn't know we were going to war. One soldier called his mother to say that they were warned one day before they left.

One soldier is heard telling a friend that they were going for training for a couple of days. We were tricked like little kids.

He told his partner that he was told they were going for training.

The soldier said that they didn't know anything.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has avoided referring to the conflict as a war since launching an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February.

The narrative conveyed by the Russian government and state media has clouded the reality of the war.

Some Russian soldiers said they were lied to about the plans to invade Ukraine and unprepared for the resistance they were met with in the country.

In a recording published by The Times, a soldier named Sergey tells his girlfriend that state media is trying to fool the Russians.

He said that they wanted to fool people on TV into thinking there was no war. It's actually an actual war.

Many of the soldiers captured in the calls were unhappy with the war. One soldier said he was told by his commanders to kill everyone they saw.