Russian soldiers would take their hands out of the trenches to be shot

• A Russian woman is campaigning to have her husband removed from Ukraine, according to Govorit NeMoskva.
• She had heard that Russian soldiers were so exhausted that they were withdrawing their hands from the trenches.
• Rumors suggested the soldiers wanted to hurt themselves so they could rest, the report said.

Rumors are circulating that Russian soldiers are so tired in Ukraine that they are taking their hands out of the trenches in a deliberate attempt to injure themselves, the wife of a mobilized soldier told Russian media outlet Govorit NeMoskva.

The wife told the outlet that she is now campaigning alongside other Russian women to have their sons and husbands brought back from Ukraine. The media did not name her.

She said many people had written to her saying that some Russian soldiers were “taking their arms out of the trenches to get injured and just rest,” according to the Moscow Times translation.

“Some people write: ‘I’m so tired. Let something hit us ASAP,'” she added.

The woman did not reveal exactly who made the allegations, but said she had spoken to her husband and several close friends who are on the front lines, according to the report.

Russian soldiers have already tried to injure themselves in order to escape the fighting. This includes a Russian paratrooper who fought in Ukraine. He said in August 2022 that Russian troops were deliberately shooting themselves in the leg in an attempt to get away from the fighting and obtain $50,000 in compensation.

Audio released by Ukraine also reveals that a Russian soldier in Ukraine told his mother in a phone call that his superior killed himself to escape combat.

Russian soldiers, many of whom have been called into combat, have described grueling conditions in Ukraine where they are overworked, thrown into combat with insufficient equipment and treated like meat by their superiors.

Soldiers’ families, in some cases, have pleaded for them to be sent back to Russia, but the risks are high: Russians can be arrested or fined for bringing the military into disrepute.

The woman who spoke to Govorit NeMoskva is a co-founder of a movement that is now calling on authorities to repatriate Russian soldiers, according to the report.

The woman said her husband, a sergeant, was called up in September 2022, according to the report. She said she was assured he would be sent home after a maximum of six months, but he is still there 13 months after starting his training.

He went home for two weeks in October, where he was quiet and didn’t want to talk about the fight, she said.

The report said she feared Russian soldiers would make mistakes and harm themselves due to fatigue.

The woman did not criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but instead said the men mobilized during Russia’s major offensive in September 2022 should now be able to stop the fighting.

She says his group has 8,000 members and is trying to organize protests but is being refused permission by some local Russian authorities, according to the media outlet.