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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian officer says war a ‘madhouse’ in call allegedly intercepted by Ukraine
2022-03-24
[IsraelTimes] A Russian officer tells his superiors the war in Ukraine is a "madhouse" according to a call allegedly intercepted by Ukraine.

According to a translation posted online, the officer says the war is going worse than Russia’s war in Chechnya in the 1990s. The officer continues to say that around half the troops have frostbite, they are unable to evacuate the hundreds of dead, and don’t have enough tents and body armor.

He says the operation is a "madhouse" after higher-ups thought it would go relatively easy, according to the translation.

"Our task was to get to Mykolaiv. And we are sitting here," the officer says.

The translation and authenticity of the call could not be independently verified.

[Twitter] If some of our Russian speakers would listen to see if the translation is reasonably accurate, and that the speaker does indeed sound like a real Russian soldier, that would be helpful. More translation in the Twitter thread.

Posted by:trailing wife

#12  oops wrong posting :/
Posted by: Procopius2k   2022-03-24 16:17  

#11  ...how quickly they forget.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2022-03-24 16:00  

#10  that no one popped up is suggestive
You're imagining things. You should take a break, get some air and clear your head
Posted by: Vespasian Omereque5237   2022-03-24 14:19  

#9  I’m afraid I don’t move in those circles, Vespasian Omereque5237, and our little website here is not the kind to interest big donors of any stripe. Were my father not dead over a decade, and profoundly deaf before that, I could have asked him about the translation. But accents, I fear, were not his forte; even half a century after emigrating, he still sounded like a greenhorn Slav in all his languages.

A pity you will not be helpful in this matter — one likes to have more than one opinion, however familiar badanov is with both Russian and Ukrainian after reporting on the first few years of the excitements in the Donbas for us. Still, the fact that no one popped up to indignantly insist that of course the recording is a fake, he sounds exactly like a Ukrainian pretending to be Russian — the way South Americans mock Mexican speech patterns and the Dutch mock the Flems’ more musical version of their shared language as hillbilly — is suggestive.
Posted by: trailing wife   2022-03-24 14:14  

#8  Ask your Jewish oligarch pals to translate for you
Roman Abramovich, Moshe Kantor, Mikhail Fridman, and Petr Aven
Posted by: Vespasian Omereque5237   2022-03-24 13:15  

#7  Oh my goodness, Skidmark! Would I do such a thing?
Posted by: trailing wife   2022-03-24 13:07  

#6  I think TW was poking our newly resident russians, Bad.
Posted by: Skidmark   2022-03-24 12:31  

#5  People down here spell his name a lot worse than that.
Posted by: Besoeker   2022-03-24 12:16  

#4  Should be "William Tecumseh Sherman." New keyboard doesn't work well with my clumsy fingers.
Posted by: Tom   2022-03-24 11:49  

#3  I still think no one can top William Tecumseh Shman: "War is hell"
Posted by: Tom   2022-03-24 11:48  

#2  This is an intercepted cellphone call, not an intercepted radio call in channels.

I did not detect any stress in the caller's voice until he mentioned the fighter attacking.
Posted by: badanov   2022-03-24 09:39  

#1  Welcome to the front, Boris.
Posted by: Cesare   2022-03-24 09:16  

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