‘We’re literally being sent to slaughter’ — mobilised soldiers from Russia’s Kaliningrad region record video message pleading for help from their governor

Mobilised servicemen from Russia’s Kaliningrad region have recorded a video message to their governor Anton Alikhanov asking for help. The video was posted on Russian social media platform VKontakte, in a group titled PobedaZAnami_39 (39 is the official number of the Kaliningrad region — translator’s note). 

The video features 12 people wearing balaclavas, some of them in military uniforms. Only one of the men is speaking. According to that person, the people in the video are “residents of the Kaliningrad region” mobilised in October of last year.

The man says that after being mobilised they all became members of territorial defence of the region and partook in “guarding particularly important facilities”. On the fifth (he does not say of what month), they had been deployed to Rostov, after which they ended up in Donetsk commanded by forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk “people’s republic”; their battalion was renamed to an “infantry” one and they were ordered to “complete assault missions”.

“We’re not refusing to carry out the assigned tasks, but we’re not trained for assault. Our battalion has already suffered losses. Our commanders are far away, there’s almost no communication. <…> We’re literally being sent to slaughter,” the man in the video claims.

A comment from the official account of the Kaliningrad region later appeared under the video. “Hello! We’re aware of the video message, we’re looking into it. Thank you,” it says.