Men mobilized for the war in Ukraine from Transbaikalia are forced to repair tanks and armored personnel carriers at their own expense, one of the servicemen told Sibir.Realii.
According to him, he was made a member of a tank crew after the mobilization was announced, and he served in the military as a driver. After being drafted, he was sent to the Krasny Yar firing range where he lived for a month and a half before being sent to the front. He told Sibir.Realii that each of the “specialists” has a tank assigned to him.
“When they showed me my vehicle, I laughed for a long time: all our tanks and APCs were Soviet-made, assembled from sticks. We had to fix them up. The army had no money for that. We bought everything with our own money - tools, spare parts. We assembled them as best we could. We learned everything from books, even bought manuals on the Internet,” he said. Sibir.Realii has also published a receipt for the purchase of an service manual.
The problems faced by mobilized men have been known since the first day of mobilization. Soldiers are forced to buy their own combat gear; they are poorly prepared for the war and are forbidden to tell others about it. For disclosing information about the plight of the mobilized, one may face a 30,000 ruble ($500) fine for “discrediting” the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as happened to Olesya Shishkanova, the administrator of the Bataisk city blog.