[FOREIGN]. >> Those are excerpts from phone calls,
placed and intercepted by Russian soldiers operating in Ukraine during
the initial weeks and months of the invasion.
The New York Times has actually obtained thousands of call recordings.
They say that they have spent literally months verifying the authenticity by cross
referencing Russian telephone numbers, with messaging apps,
and social media platforms.
So that they can specifically identify, not only that they were Russian soldiers,
but which specific Russian soldiers they actually were.
They put two months into translating and cataloging them, and
they are available on the New York Times right now.
You heard a couple of different soldiers right there,
we're to jump into some of the other things that they revealed.
Because we have often had to get our information from for instance the media,
or the US government, or what the Ukrainian government has released,
what Russian State TV has been willing to admit, that's all biased information.
While I can't personally verify the authenticity of this,
the things that they're talking about are things that we know have happened.
And so let's jump into some of what they've revealed, you have soldier
identified as Nikita saying, f there are corpses lying around on the road,
civilians are just lying around, it's f up right on the road.
Yes, everything was f-ing looted, all the alcohol was f-ing drunk, and
all the cash was taken, everyone is doing it here.
So, it's just a short little bit of a conversation revealing just the routine
death of civilians that are just left to rot in the streets, while their homes,
and residences, businesses are looted by the invading force.
This, if you've been paying attention to war, should not come as a surprise.
But it's important that people understand that this happens, and
that this is happening, this is what the invasion was like.
They're also revealing other things that you might not have expected,
one soldier named Sergey says, no one told us we were going to war,
they warned us one day before we left.
Nikita says, we're all going for training for two or three days,
fooled like little kids, these bastards didn't tell us anything.
And so there was a combination of admitting to either witnessing or
participating in war crimes, denouncing Putin or Russia for
having no idea what they were doing.
For sending them into war without training, with equipment that was not good
enough, being lied to about how capable the Ukrainian forces would be.
There's a massive amount of resentment, and just absolutely shattered morale.
Soldiers talking about being ready to either quit their military commission,
or just head off, just start walking, and get out of there while they can.
Caroline it is dramatic stuff.
>> Yeah and I think echoing back to what we were talking about earlier
in terms of Michael Flynn and this like rapid interest in war.
And something you're touching on here is that,
war has so many lies within it.
And I think what these New York Times text messages and
audio reveals, is something very sad, but
also very I think positive about our current situation.
In that, this is absolutely devastating that we are reading these words
of Russian soldiers who again, they're supposed to be our enemy.
We are supposed to be against them and we are seeing their response
to these horrific situations that they are forced to participate in.
So while that is like, just incredibly sad and scary,
the fact that we are in modernity are able to by the internet,
by social media, able to see these voices across the globe.
Who the powers that be are trying desperately to convince are our enemies,
that's how we prohibit this escalation in the future.
Of course it's not easy and it's probably,
in this particular Russian, Ukraine war, it might not even work.
But holding on to these examples that this is not for us, it's not for
us as Americans, it's not for average Russian people.
You can't cover up dissent as you once could and
I think that's the biggest lesson that we have to take from all this.
I think right now in particular where the war is at currently,
is such a crucial moment that will quite literally determine the history
of may be the rest of our generation as it comes to geopolitics.
With the pipeline act, leading to massive energy,
insecurity in Europe it can't be said enough
that we are at a tipping point at this moment.
I don't think anyone could have predicted the dire
situation that it seems like the Russian army is in.
Not only from yeah, like you said what we can see as Americans,
which is incredibly rare to get super accurate reporting from either side.
But all we could do is hold on to these examples that this is not a war for
the people, war is not for the people.
And there's no amount of propaganda that should change our minds about that.
>> Yeah, and they seem to get that, and hopefully some of this messaging is
getting back through perhaps these phone calls.
Someone in the chat I see says,
if I were a Russian soldier I'd be taking out the highest ranking officer I see.
Well, so you're saying that obviously we don't support random killings,
we know that, that's happening.
We know that they are, I mean that happens in a lot of wars actually but
in this definitely is, I mean they were losing generals and officers left and
right and regular soldiers too.
I mean one of the most dramatic things that's been revealed,
is how many have been killed.
One soldier, Nikita,
tells his partner that 90 men were killed around him during one ambush.
Another Semyon estimates that a third of his regiment was killed.
Another describes rows of coffins containing the bodies of 400
paratroopers waiting to be returned home from an airport hangar.
And I have a feeling that those will not be photographed once they make it back to
Russia.
I mean Russia has had, look the numbers of dead being reported by the Ukrainians for
the Russian side, I'm sure are elevated.
But the numbers that the Russians are admitting to,
of course are an underestimate.
I mean this has been a massive needless meat grinder for
Russian soldiers who probably the vast majority have no interest in this war.
Now, once they get there, if they participate in war crimes, then that
should be the end for them, they should be locked up for the rest of their lives.
So we can perhaps pity that they would not have engaged in this if they had been
forced to, perhaps at pain of imprisonment or death if they didn't participate.
But they don't wanna be here,
they don't wanna be doing this every single each of these quotes, references
an unimaginable tragedy that didn't have to happen, that could end any day.
And the only reason it isn't is because Vladimir Putin chooses to continue it.
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