Exiled Russian soldier Pavel Filatyev gives a detailed account of the Kremlin’s “lies” in Ukraine and the living conditions of his brothers-in-arms. His testimony, published on the Internet and then picked up by the Western press, is a blow to Russia and Vladimir Putin.
He called his written testimony ZOV, the letters painted on Russian army equipment during the invasion of Ukraine. Pavel Filatyev, an elite soldier who fled the fighting, posted his logbook and truths about the clashes online in early August.
“Physically I’m tired, but I’m morally relieved that so many people have been able to learn the truth,” he confided to our colleagues at BFMTV during a video conference broadcast this Monday, August 22.
“We lived with the idea that NATO threatened Russia”
In the middle of the night of February 23, the young paratrooper received orders to position himself with his entire unit of the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment in the city of Armyansk, Crimea, on the border with Ukraine.
In his testimony, he stated that he had been receiving information from his superiors about a possible conflict with NATO for more than a year. “For a year we’ve been living with the idea that NATO is threatening Russia. So I thought we were going to fight NATO troops,” said the soldier.
A very embarrassing testimony for Moscow
Pavel Filatyev will take part in the capture of Kherson and will spend several days in a trench before being demobilized after being injured. Then he decides to tell his war in a more than 150-page document, not sparing the Russian power and Vladimir Putin. This Sunday, the New York Post published large excerpts.
So we learn that the soldiers of the Russian army received their orders at the last moment, and by the beginning of the campaign they lacked almost everything. With no sleeping bag, no water or food, Pavel realizes that many of his brothers in arms have chained the looting.
It took me weeks to realize that there was no war at all on Russian territory and that we had just attacked Ukraine
“We ate everything like savages: oatmeal, porridge, jam, honey, coffee… We were already exhausted. (…) I saw that many could not resist the temptation to steal notebooks, smartphones, the salary did not allow them to buy them. Everyone used themselves in the shops,” confides the soldier.
Pavel also told the British newspaper The Guardian that he became aware of Vladimir Putin’s lies on the battlefield. “It took me weeks to realize that there was no war at all on Russian territory and that we had just attacked Ukraine. I said to myself: my God, if I survive, then I will do everything to stop this. (. ..) Maybe it won’t change anything, but I won’t go along with this madness anymore”.
Now on the run abroad
Questioned by our colleagues from BFMTV, he clarified: “There were no neo-Nazis before us. I denounced the lie of the Russian government.”
This Saturday, August 20, Pavel Filatyev quietly left Russia. Her more than embarrassing testimony for the Kremlin, who has become an enemy of the state, could land her in deep trouble in a country where Ukraine is banned from talking about “war”.