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The state of plummeting Russian morale has been laid bare by a series of intercepted audio messages indicating a growing number of soldiers are growing weary of Vladimir Putin\u2019s war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
And one man summed up the devastating human cost of the conflict by telling a relative: \u201cWe\u2019re dying like f****** earthworms.\u201d<\/p>\n
In audio intercepts from the front lines, Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s – people who refuse to fight.<\/p>\n
The calls offer a glimpse of the war as it looked through Russian eyes – a point of view that seldom makes its way into Western media, largely because Russia has made it a crime to speak honestly about the conflict in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
They also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin\u2019s full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in gruelling conditions.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Disaster for Putin as Zelensky retaliates overnight after ‘biggest day of war’<\/strong><\/p>\n One man, speaking from the front line in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, tells his brother: \u201cThere\u2019s no f****** \u2018dying the death of the brave\u2019 here. You just die like a f****** earthworm.\u201d<\/p>\n What was happening in Ukraine was \u201csimply genocide\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cIf this s*** doesn\u2019t stop, then soon we\u2019ll be leading the Ukrainians to the Kremlin ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just a huge testing ground, where the whole world is testing their weapons, f*** it, and sizing up their d***s, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n The prospect of another wave of mobilisation lingers, even as Moscow has been trying to lure people into signing contracts with the military.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s annual autumn conscription draft kicked off in October, pulling in some 130,000 fresh young men. Although Moscow says conscripts won\u2019t be sent to Ukraine, after a year of service they automatically become reservists – prime candidates for mobilisation.<\/p>\n Some of the people in the overheard conversation had no money, no education and no options, while others believed in patriotic duty.<\/p>\n One worked in a meat processing plant, cutting bone, another worked at a law firm and a third, who worked as a roofer and later at a supermarket company, had a string of debts and had defaulted on his utilities payments, records show.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/Ukraine-5086210.jpg?r=1701016063326\")
<\/p>\nUkrainian Forces blow up RU T-90 tank in Lyman area<\/h3>\n
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