Russia’s major new offensive, confirmed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday, appears to have revived an old problem for Russian mobilisers: sending soldiers to the front without the proper equipment.

A new viral video on social media shows Russian soldiers complaining about deception and fraud.

• “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
• After 30 minutes we go to the front line. It is not clear where. We are told absolutely nothing.
• These are “secret measures”. But do not tell the employees what the goal is and what we will do… We are being deceived
• This is complete negligence and incompetence on the part of the commanders
• We don’t even know the names of the new commanders. I didn’t even see them,” says the mobilized Russian.

Another soldier speaks and says that they were transferred to the Internal Security Service, their documents were taken away for no reason, and the next day they were stamped in the Internal Security Service.

“We ask everyone who sees this message to at least share it on social media,” says another.

The Ombudsman of Russia calls for an investigation into how Russians are sent to the front in Ukraine

This video message appeared after other similar videos spread on social networks.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tetyana Moskalkova on Monday asked the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov to investigate reports that conscripts from Tatarstan were being sent to fight in Ukraine “virtually without weapons.”

“We are the 1231st regiment from Tatarstan. The local authorities don’t care about us, we are expendable. They took away our equipment and humanitarian aid,” they said.

Even Tatarstan wives and mothers published video appeals on social networks asking for help, because their husbands and sons were sent to the front without preparation.

So the Russian military’s old problems appear to be returning, despite President Vladimir Putin’s promises to fix the loopholes.

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

At the same time, at a conference he held in Bishkek during an official visit to Kyrgyzstan, the head of the Kremlin assured that some problems with the supply of 300,000 mobilized “reservists” are easing.

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.

The failure in Wulgledar speaks of problems that may be reflected elsewhere on the front

Chaotic scenes are taking place in Ugledar, Russian military bloggers call it a fiasco: Russian tanks wobble wildly before exploding or driving directly into minefields, soldiers running in all directions, some of them on fire, corpses of soldiers stuck in tank tracks, writes CNN.

• They say that the elite Russian brigade was completely destroyed for the third time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine

The problems arose because Ukraine’s armed forces reportedly destroyed “almost an entire brigade” of 155 Marines during the fighting in Vugledar in the Donetsk region, Politico reported, citing Ukrainian military official Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi.

The disaster at Vugledar shows the chronic failures of Russian command and tactics as they prepare for the spring offensive. If such failures are repeated elsewhere on the long military front in Donetsk and Luhansk, they could jeopardize the Kremlin’s plans to seize additional territory.

Follow the latest developments from The 355th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.