Russia has been suffering crushing push-backs from Ukraine’s defence forces, who last month reclaimed the city of Kherson after eight months of occupation. In addition to the military defeats, conscripts brought in to strengthen the numbers of the Russian Army opened up a new front as they took to social media to lament the lack of equipment and training they were provided with. Security expert Robert Fox said reports are now emerging of Russian soldiers “dying of hypothermia” because of the inappropriate kit Vladimir Putin’s Army as provided them.
Speaking to LBC, the Evening Standard correspondent said: “For the Russian troops, there is now quite significant evidence of ill-equipped, particularly recruits getting…even in the training camps, dying of hypothermia.
“That is really quite something. Inadequate sleeping bags, inadequate clothing and suffering from the cold.
“They find it difficult fighting in the cold but the fighting is going on.”
He noted that despite Russia’s ongoing strikes targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine, locals have been able to rely on the support of neighbouring countries to provide domestic generators.
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Asked whether winter is having an impact on the course of the war, Mr Fox said: “It’s having an effect from what we see from the blogs and things we get through Telegram.
“Of course, a lot of Ukraine is freezing, it is very difficult to get domestic heating going because of the attacks on infrastructure.
“They are working around it like mad, there are lots of requests to Western suppliers across the border – Poland and Romania in particular – to get any form of domestic heating, domestic generators in.”
Defence analyst Prof Michael Clarke last month warned Russian troops faced treacherous conditions, warning the threat of an anticyclone moving in from Siberia threatened soldiers with “life-threatening” cold.”
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Footage circulating on social media in recent weeks appeared to confirm that Russian troops are struggling to cope with the challenging weather conditions.
A video showed a Ukrainian drone monitoring a group of soldiers huddled together in a shallow trench.
Despite the unmanned device hovering right above them, the group appears unable to react and makes no attempt to move away.
Former Ukrainian correspondent Tom Warner shared the video on his Twitter profile, commenting: “One man starts to get on his legs, but he merely shoves his way through other groggy men a few feet further from where the grenade hit and settles back to sleep.
“No one tries to change their overall situation before the next grenade hits. Three of the men don’t move at all.
“These men are suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia when the body stops shivering and the mind goes into a stupor or even shuts down.
“They were probably laying huddled all night without proper clothing or bags. Night temperatures have been in the mid-high 30s F / 0-4 C
“They’re surely also sleep-deprived. But above all, they’re hopeless men in a hopeless situation. Whether convicts roped into a paramilitary force or recent conscripts to the regular army, these men have given complete control of their fates to people who treat them like garbage.”
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