MOSCOW: The sister of a Russian soldier serving in Ukraine claimed that soldiers were suffering heavy losses, were denied access to weapons, and were required to dig trenches only with their bare hands.

Hundreds of recently mobilized Russian soldiers have been killed on the front lines in Ukraine's Luhansk region, after three days of shelling by Ukrainian forces.

On Sunday, two relatives of soldiers who had moved to Latvia earlier this year were interviewed by TV Rain, an independent Russian-language television station. It published the conversation on Telegram.

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Alexander's sister, who was drafted on 16 October, claimed that on 1 November she was brought to the Luhansk region and immediately sent to the front.

"The generals said that whatever they do they will kill everyone because they brought you here for this." He claimed that he told her that he gave each of the 30 men a sapper shovel and instructed them to dig their own trench.

According to the sister, the commanders then informed the soldiers that they would get food for them before departure. He claimed that three days of artillery attacks against the men began 40 minutes after the first hit.

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Sikandar told his sister that out of the 560 men accompanying him, only 31 could be located after the shelling. They don't know exactly what happened to others.

“They had no weapons at all. They were given four grenades, and according to Ekaterina Brezhnikova, the sister of a different soldier, they dug the ground with their own hands.

The accounts support earlier information which suggests that Russia's efforts to quickly recruit 300,000 more Russians into the army to fight in Ukraine have met with serious failure.

Britain's Defense Ministry said on Friday that the Russian military is currently only deploying units in Ukraine with the aim of threatening to shoot soldiers captured while retreating.

It stated that this was due to low morale and lack of willingness to fight among the soldiers. These units have been used by Russian forces to force offensives in past conflicts.

Previous reports have emphasized the perceived lack of equipment and training of Russian troops.
In October, UK intelligence claimed that Russia was sending reserve troops into battle with rifles that were "barely usable", giving Putin's generals a new kind of headache.

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Russian officials were concerned because some of these reservists were also sent without weapons, according to British intelligence, who claimed they often came "poorly equipped" to Ukraine.