Russia will try to improve the motivation of their soldiers with talks about “sweet” benefits of war in Ukraine and increased payments.
Mikhail Matvievsky, chief of Strategic Missile Forces and the Artillery of the Russian Ground Forces, appealed to the heads of Russian military training centers to step up war propaganda and ban soldiers from taking phone calls from Ukraine.
This was reported by the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) with a respective copy of the letter attached to the statement.
In particular, Matvievsky urged Russian soldiers to ignore all calls and messages from telephone numbers with codes +375 and +380 (Belarus and Ukraine, respectively).
Other recommendations, inter alia, are as following:
If for any reason a soldier decides to take a call, everything they hear shall be interpreted as a lie and provocation (regardless of the content of the conversation);
After the call, a soldier shall block the number on their phone and also send a request to the mobile operator to block the call, too;
Soldiers shall be informed about the "advantages" of participating in the war with Ukraine. In particular, access to additional social guarantees and increased payments.
In addition, all Ukrainian and other media outlets were declared as those distributing only fake news. Instead, all Russian soldiers shall read the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper daily.
"Russia attempts to completely isolate its citizens and obscure information, similarly to North Korea. Any external information (regardless of the quality and subject matter of the content) is by definition declared hostile," according to the GUR statement.
Russian looters complain that other soldiers are taking away stolen property
Few other sources also confirmed that Russian military commanders were unhappy about an increased informational influence on Russian soldiers by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Security Service of Ukraine, and therefore decided to increase "the level of control over the access to information and communication in messengers" by Russian soldiers.
Earlier, GUR intercepted a letter addressed to the commanders of nine military units of the Russian army. The document was issued by the Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District Peter Gibert. According to the letter, Russian soldiers were offered days-off instead of salaries and were not allowed to complain about the lack of funding.
On 12 March, Russian soldiers were instructed by their leadership to switch to the "self-supply" mode. This decision, in fact, legalized looting in Ukraine.
The team of “Belarusian Guyun” project has released detailed information (e.g. telephone numbers, military units, places of residence) of the Russian troops, who arranged for the delivery of goods looted in Ukraine from the Belarusian city of Mozyr. In just one day, on 2 April, the Russian soldiers sent about two tons of stolen electrical equipment, personal belongings, clothing, and precious metals via the Russian delivery service SDEK in Mozyr.
Earlier, Russian troops were exposed to radiation after digging trenches in the forest in the Chornobyl zone, which is now causing panic among Russian soldiers as a result.