Russian Troops Say Their Only Money Will Go to Ammo, Refuse to Fight

A new video posted to social media on Friday reportedly shows Russian troops in Ukraine proclaiming they will no longer fight on behalf of their country due to lack of payment as well as not being given proper supplies.

"We...have to fight for our own money. All we've got left is to buy our own ammo," a soldier says in the video.

WarTranslated, an independent media project that translates materials about the war in Ukraine into English, shared the video on Twitter. In the clip, which couldn't be independently verified by Newsweek, the soldiers describe losing over 50 percent of their unit while fighting around the village of Novodarivka.

"In the company, we had 160 people. Only 40 remain," one man said.

The group of soldiers all wore either medical face masks or gaiter masks, and various men spoke during the video. They claimed to have not received any payments from Russia since January and said they've been in combat for 10 months with no leave. Other grievances were also aired in the clip.

"No artillery support, nothing. No provisions, no water, nothing," a troop said.

"Today, on July 6, they want to forcefully deploy us again in Novodarivka. So we will refuse," another added, according to WarTranslated.

They went on describe having "no heavy vehicles support" and "only rifles" to fight against Ukraine's tanks.

"All the items given to us by the army were destroyed by bombs. We have two shovels left for the whole company. That's nothing," one soldier said.

The clip ended with a troop wearing a mask emblazoned with a skull image saying, "We even blow up on our own mines."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.

The video is the latest example of Russian troops protesting their conditions. Last week, WarTranslated shared a clip of "Storm Company" men declaring they refused to go fight on the "meat grinder" front lines at the Zaporizhzhia region village of Priyutny.

"We surrender to military police. If any of us die here, it wouldn't be on the zero line. It would mean we were killed by our own here, not in combat," a soldier in that video said.

On Monday, WarTranslated posted another video of a Russian soldier stationed in Ukraine saying his unit is refusing to follow "senseless and suicidal orders" given to them by commanding officers.

"We do not refuse to serve but will only complete the territory defense objectives we've been prepared for," the soldier said. "We do not want to carry out senseless and suicidal orders."