Drafted Russians were deployed to Ukraine without weapons and expected to dig trenches with their bare hands, relative says

• Russian media reported that hundreds of Russians are dead.

• The sister of a draftee said that they were given four grenades.

• The lack of training and equipment for Russian soldiers has been reported before.

The sister of a Russian soldier said that troops were given no weapons and were expected to dig trenches with their bare hands.

According to Russian news outlets, hundreds of recently mobilized Russian soldiers have died on the front line in the Luhansk region.

TV Rain spoke to the relatives of two of the soldiers on Sunday. The exchanges were posted on telegram.

Alexander's sister said that they were immediately sent to the front after being brought to Luhansk.

They brought you here for this and will kill you all. He told her that they gave them a shovel and told them to dig their own trenches.

She said that the commanders told the soldiers that they were going to get food and leave. She said that the men were hit by strikes for three days.

Alexander told his sister that after the shelling they only had 31 to account for. They aren't sure what happened to the rest.

They had no weaponry. They were given four grenades, and they dug the ground with their hands.

The accounts add to previous reports suggesting that Russia's attempt to rush 300,000 additional Russians into the military was a failure.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Friday that Russia's military was likely to deploy units with the sole purpose of threatening to shoot soldiers who were fleeing.

"These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by the Russians," it said.

The lack of training and equipment for Russian soldiers has been reported before.

The UK intel said that Russia was rushing reserve troops into battle with "barely usable" rifles, creating a new kind of headaches for Putin's generals.

British intelligence said that many of the reservists have arrived in Ukraine "poorly equipped" and that Russian officers were concerned because some of them had no weapons.

Business Insider has an article on it.