What Do Russia's Military Suicides Say About the State of the War?

No morale, no hope, yet they sign up to die.

I’m no Russophile and have never officially studied Russia and it’s people. I have worked with Russians on many occasions and can safely say, NONE of the Russian’s I have worked with have any allegiance to Putin. They are all aware that the Russian government is a scam. Why sign up to die? At this point the war and its horror arrives everyday to any Telegram user that desires to see it. So, the truth about a Russian soldier’s fate is clear, vivid.

It seems the new recruit’s timeline is bleak. Sign up → go to a short training → report to the rear of the action → learn you will die → learn if you try to retreat you will be shot → get a very survivable wound → no one comes to help(CASEVAC) → stick a grenade in between your gear and your chest. In many cases this timeline is only weeks! Many die within 48 hours of arriving in Ukraine.

Before I go on I want to issue a warning here. Research, to be called research, assumes that everything reported can be verified. Well, in this case I must caution you against it. To do so would expose you to a lot of human suffering. Be aware of what you are getting into if you follow any links, or search for any data. I don’t know the future price I will pay for exposing myself to this data/research. Currently I’m relying on my hatred of Russia and what it is doing to Ukraine to be my shield.

The pro-Ukrainian Russian language mil-blog БУТУСОВ ПЛЮС on Telegram has chronicled the prevalence of Russian soldiers taking their own lives on the battle field. Here is a snapshot. From April 1 until July 23 there have been 49 mentions of either:

Suicide
Commit Suicide
Putin’s Kiss
Putin’s Farewell Kiss

“Putin’s Farewell Kiss“ is the term Ukraine has given this suicide phenomenon.

While researching this particular mil-blog I came across a Twitter/X post from @GloOouD dated June 24th. He compiled a video of 64 instances of Russian solders appearing to end their own lives on the battlefield. The following is his data.

The instances were geolocated. With 60% coming from Donetsk.

The means were divided mostly between a gun or a grenade. (97%)

Putting a grenade in your vest to make certain of the outcome and leave no room for error seems, in my estimation, to be a taught “skill”. Not taught in the way a soldier would learn how to clean his rifle. But an informal skill taught in the rear of the fighting by commanders and survivors. Otherwise, the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind when they think of suicide with a weapon is a gun. If Russia is in fact teaching suicide, this speaks to morale. (Russia’s are killing themselves at the mere sight of a drone.)

I have seen one instance of a Russian mil-blogger advocating suicide before capture or being target by Ukrainian drones. This isn’t the kind of cheerleading one would expect from a propagandist. What message does this convey to new recruits? Here is a video of a Russian commander telling his troops they will all die. At this point I assume the “skill” for the most effective way to die by your own hand has already been taught or is about to be taught.

What does all of this say about Russia’s war fighting ability? Does this say something about the people of Russia? Some have described Russia as a death cult run by mafia bosses with access to nuclear weapons. While I think that’s a bridge too far, there is however certainly evidence for it.

Add to the phenomenon of “Putin’s Farewell Kiss” the often disaffected and unconcerned nature of the average Russian trooper walking past his comrade bleeding out, one can’t help but wonder, just how much longer the Russian rear can survive before a large scale mutiny. Larger than Prigozhin’s march to Moscow.