In leaked phone calls, Russian soldiers appear angry at losses in Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News

Ukraine’s counteroffensive was in its second month when Andrey, a Russian soldier, called his wife to say his unit was taking heavy casualties. They were so badly equipped, he said, it felt like the Soviet forces in World War II.

“They are f*****g us up,” Andrey said by telephone on July 12, comparing the onslaught to the worst moments of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. “No f*****g ammunition, nothing … Shall we use our fingers as bayonets?”

The conversation was one excerpt from 17 phone calls placed by Russian soldiers fighting in the south and east of Ukraine that…