Russians turn to crowdfunding for ill-equipped soldiers in Ukraine

Pro-war Russians are crowdfunding supplies for soldiers who have complained that Moscow has failed to arm them properly.

Everything from rifle scopes to boots for soldiers have been sent to Ukraine, paid for by patriotic Russians through fundraising initiatives.

The grassroots campaign, backed by the Kremlin and its Telegram channels, has published photos of soldiers carrying civilian drones and radios, all purchased by ordinary Russians.

In Belgorod, south Russia, 35-year-old Sophia volunteers in a crowdfunding programme. She told The Telegraph that the success of the nationwide campaign showed that “patriotic Russians” supported Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The money comes in from all over the country,” she said. “Somebody might send 100 roubles (£1.26) and somebody else might send 100,000 roubles, it all helps.”

The Kremlin has banned dissent and talk of war, instead calling it a “special operation”. It has also ramped up its propaganda drive, which is built around the twin notions Putin was forced to invade Ukraine to deal with a Nazi threat and that the invasion is going smoothly.

Sophia said that thermal imaging equipment and shovels were popular requests, but she denied that the Russian army was poorly equipped.

Military ‘thinking ahead’ to avoid shortages

“The military are special people,” she said. “They think ahead and often ask for reserves so that they can prevent shortages.”

Western intelligence, though, gives a different picture. It has said that the war has humiliated Russia and that at least 15,000 soldiers have died because of poor leadership, planning and equipment.

Reports have emerged of Russian soldiers being resupplied with soggy lavatory paper and Soviet-era field telephones rather than modern weapons.

Ukrainian soldiers have regularly out-armed their opponents, often because of the advanced weaponry sent to them from Western allies and Ukraine’s own crowdfunding efforts.

An intercepted mobile phone conversation from mid-May shows Russian soldiers are becoming increasingly frustrated with Moscow’s supplies.

“There is a lot of evergreen overgrowth here now. You can’t see anything. You need thermal imaging … but we have to buy everything ourselves,” a Russian soldier in Ukraine told another man in Russia. “This army really is s---.”

For Sophia, the crowdfunding was more than just about resupplying soldiers. It was also about defending the “Motherland”, such as in World War II when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

“More than 200 cities in Russia have been supporting our fighters since the beginning of the special operation because Russians do not abandon their own,” she said. “We love our Russian army.”