ALEKSANDR: Putin is a fool. He wants to take Kyiv. But there’s no way we can do it.
SERGEY: Our offense has stalled. We’re losing this war.
ANDREY: Half of our regiment is gone.
SERGEY TO MOTHER: I’ve never seen so many corpses.
ALEKSEY TO PARTNER: They said we were going for training. These [expletive] didn’t tell us anything.
SERGEY TO MOTHER: We all think the same thing: This war wasn’t needed.
NIKITA TO PARTNER: [Expletive]. There are corpses lying around on the road. Civilians are just lying around. It’s [expletive] up.
Right on the road?
Yes.
NIKITA TO FRIEND: Everything was [expletive] looted. All the alcohol was [expletive] drunk. And all the cash was taken … Everyone is doing it here.
SERGEY TO MOTHER: No one told us we were going to war. They warned us one day before we left.
NIKITA TO FRIEND: We were all going for training for two or three days.
— Excerpts from translated and transcribed call recordings published by The New York Times