Russians mobilized for the war in Ukraine have often complained of poor or no training, but now a short video that has gone viral on Twitter shows that the Russian armed forces are capable of self-mutilation in an attempt to destroy Ukrainian positions.

A Russian tank was destroyed during a counteroffensive by Ukrainian troopsPhoto: Andriy Andrienko/SOPA Images / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

The video, lasting just a few seconds, shows a Russian soldier hit by a shell fired from his own tank, and journalist Ewan Macdonald notes that the incident once again highlights the poor training of Russian soldiers.

According to Russian videos circulating on social networks, the people mobilized by Putin continue to complain about the lack of equipment and training, as well as the fact that they are being trained, for example, for defensive lines, but turned into assault troops.

  • “From the line of defense, we were turned into assault troops. We are mobilized from the Orenburg region, we want to draw the attention of the investigative department, the military prosecutor’s office to the fact that from the 1st day we were at the training centers, we were deceived.
  • At first we were told that we would be in territorial defense. After arriving in the DNR, we were told that we were strikers. We were not properly equipped. No first-aid kits, no matching body armor. We were not given anything. All the assurances of our battalion commander turned out to be lies

In late December, a Russian soldier complained to a friend that 17 people had been killed by Russian tank fire, which once again showed how poorly organized the Russian army was and how poor communications were.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that since September 21, when he ordered a partial mobilization, there have been problems with the equipment of soldiers, after numerous videos that Russian recruits themselves shared on social media showed.

At the same time, at the conference he held in Bishkek during his official visit to Kyrgyzstan, the head of the Kremlin assured that some of the problems with providing for 300,000 mobilized “reservists” are being resolved.

A few days later, Putin instructed the Russian government to create a so-called working group to coordinate issues related to the mobilization and training of mobilized reservists in response to numerous complaints from Russian conscripts and soldiers.