Russian Soldier Considers Killing Commander To Escape Ukraine War 'Alive,' Intercepted Call Shows

A Russian soldier deployed to the war in Ukraine was recorded mulling over whether he should take out his own commander to flee the battlefield alive, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Wednesday released a recording of an intercepted phone call where a Russian soldier told an acquaintance that he was considering killing his own commander to get home alive.

"We are behind Izium, in Komyshuvakha. We have no cover, nothing. They can't get us out of here. And the commander's office just tells us to go and fight. We have 60 tanks here, scores of infantry, artillery is working, but no one knows their targets. Upon a first opportunity, it is better to flee home just to make it out of here alive," the soldier said.

In the call, the soldier also blasted his commander for letting their colleague die. He said that the soldier who died later was sent out into the night without being given any thermal visors despite the captain having three on hand.

"The guy got shot in the liver and just died there in the mud," he said. "Anyway, we just have to take them out and get out of here."

It is unclear when or where the phone call was intercepted. It is also unclear whether the soldier pushed through with his plan to take out his commander.

The call is the latest in a string of reports about demoralized Russian soldiers wanting to flee the war in Ukraine.

In late August, 34-year-old Russian paratrooper Pavel Filatyev posted a 141-page journal on Vkontakte, Russia's equivalent of Facebook, where he revealed that soldiers being deployed in the war are given only old and rusty equipment to use on the battlefield. Filatyev also said some Russian units were forced to pillage occupied areas to fend off starvation due to a lack of provisions from Moscow.

"They simply decided to shower Ukraine with our corpses in this war," he wrote, as translated by The Washington Post.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) on Aug. 17 also reported that some Russian soldiers had either inflicted a light wound or mutilated themselves to escape the battlefield.

Russia has refrained from posting an official military death toll in the war in Ukraine. However, estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine put the Russian death toll at 47,900 as of Wednesday.