A Russian tank officer captured after a month of fighting in Ukraine was
found to have filmed a home movie of the invasion on his cell phone.
The footage, in which he talks about his comrades being turned into
“slivers of meat” and “minced meat,” offers an amazing glimpse into Moscow’s
stuttering invasion as his gun jams, his vehicle explodes and a raid on a
Ukrainian military base goes awry.
It was filmed by Yuri Shalaev – a 23-year-old lieutenant educated at
Moscow’s top military academy and stationed in Chechnya before the war – in
defiance of Kremlin orders to avoid using personal cell phones for security
reasons.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Kyiv Interior Ministry, says: “It
is very rare as 95 percent of the occupiers do not take their phones with them,
and when they do, very few of them have smartphones as most come from poorer
regions of Russia. It is significant as it shows the callous actions and
chaotic military operations of the Russian armed forces.’
Shalaev, the commander of a motorized platoon, was arrested last month
after cowering for three days with two injured comrades in a basement of a
Donbass village following an attack on their armored personnel carrier (APC).
