In “‘Everyone’s Drunk. No Uniforms. No Food.’ Inside The Confusion Greeting Some Of Russia’s Newly Mobilized Troops”, RFE/RL’s Siberian Realities service has two case histories of what it’s like to be a Russian conscript from outside the big cities. The service writes:
Four days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the order to mobilize ..., Aleksandr Koltun, a 35-year-old father of six, showed up at the local draft board office in the Siberian city of Bratsk and presented himself for service.
He, and a batch of other conscripts, were sent later that day to Novosibirsk for further preparations for deployment.
After he got to Novosibirsk he called his family and told his mother Yelena Gudo, “We walk and wander back and forth, everyone’s drunk, they didn’t give us any uniforms, there’s no food.”
And after nine days in Novosibirsk, he was dead.
RFE/RL’s Siberian Realities writes:
Gudo said neither she nor her daughter-in-law — Koltun’s wife — heard any official notice or condolence or explanation from the draft board or military recruiters about the death.
Gudo said they were told by officials that her son’s body would be returned from Novosibirsk to Bratsk on October 10, and they were presented with a 180,000-ruble (US$2,900) bill for the cost of transporting it.
RFE/RL’s story also mentions another case, that of Denis Kozlov, 44, from the Argayashsky district who was apparently beaten in mobilization camp and was then returned home, unrecognizable and dying.
Meduza reports several more stories like this. At least 16 people have died so far in the mobilization. Although this is a tiny fraction of overall Russian deaths, and many of the deaths have been reported as suicides, the deaths due to the chaotic mobilization are likely hurting Russian morale out of proportion to their number.