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About 440 Russian conscripts sent to fight in Luhansk have been killed by Ukrainian shelling after being abandoned by their unit commanders, according to various media reports. Russian reservist Alexei Agafonov told the Guardian that of the 570 soldiers mobilized in his unit, only 130 survived the Ukrainian attack on November 1. “I saw men tearing apart in front of me, most of our unit is gone, destroyed. It was hell,” he said, The Guardian’s Russia correspondent Piot Sauer quoted him as saying. A second, unnamed soldier confirmed Agafonov’s account, saying “hundreds” of reservists died that day, according to The Guardian. “Two weeks of training doesn’t prepare you for this,” he told the report. Agafonov and his battalion were ordered to dig trenches near Makiivka, a town in Luhansk, but only had three shovels in the battalion, Russian media outlet Verstka reported. Verstka is an independent news outlet that regularly publishes news that challenges or challenges Kremlin narratives. When Ukraine bombarded the area with artillery, helicopters and mortars on the morning of Nov. 1, the reservists were “simply shot,” Agafonov told the agency. “When it all started, the police officers ran away immediately,” he said, according to Verstka. The men in Agafonov’s unit were drafted as part of Russia’s massive mobilization of 300,000 reservists announced by President Vladimir Putin in hopes of bolstering Moscow’s forces in Ukraine. Putin said on October 21 that 33,000 reservists had already joined their combat units and that 16,000 of them were already fighting. Agafonov’s unit included residents from the city of Voronezh, Verstka reported. In a video message to the local governor, the wives of the lottery pickers protested the conditions surrounding their husbands’ mission, according to the report. They asked Russian authorities to rescue the men and remove them from the front line, according to Verstka, which reposted the video. “The day they arrived, they were put on the front line. The command left the battlefield and ran away,” said one woman. “Our soldiers survived as best they could,” he added. “They didn’t sleep, they didn’t eat, for three days they held the line and didn’t run away, unlike their commanders.”

Moscow is fighting reports of massive reserve losses

                            Enlisted civilians are seen as part of the mobilization as military training continues as part of the mobilization in Rostov, Russia on October 31, 2022. Arkady Budnitsky/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Reports of the Makiivka massacre have turned into a public scandal for Russian officials, according to the Washington Post. In a separate complaint, several pro-Russian military correspondents on Sunday published an open letter from members of Russia’s 155th infantry brigade, according to the Post. They claimed 300 soldiers in their unit were killed and half their equipment was lost in the first four days of their deployment to Donetsk, according to the agency. On October 13, Anastasia Kashevarova, a pro-war Russian blogger, complained on her Telegram channel about the treatment of Russian reservists. “I have this to say, some commanders need to be shot. Gentlemen, you have no moral right to wear your rank and shoulder pads,” he wrote. “Zinc coffins are already coming. You told us there would be training, that they wouldn’t be sent to the front after a week. Lies again?” wrote Kashevarova. Russian Telegram channel “War on Fakes,” which spreads pro-Kremlin disinformation and is frequently cited by Russian authorities, claimed Sunday that reports of mass casualties among Russian reservists were false. Experts in the Russian armed forces say it is likely that many of Russia’s reservists will serve as mere cannon fodder, with some troops receiving less than 10 days of training, according to the New York Times. Western intelligence agencies now regularly report that Russian reservists arrive on the front lines with poor equipment and Soviet-era weapons. Some troops arrived on the battlefield with “difficult to use rifles”, the UK Ministry of Defense said on 31 October. Russian news agencies also reported soaring prices at stores selling military and outdoor equipment, indicating a scramble among mobilized men to buy essential items that Moscow has not provided.