Russian soldier furious: "Putin, f*ck off!"

Russian soldier furious: "Putin, f*ck off!"

In early August, Russian soldier Pavel Filatyev spoke about the conflict in Ukraine, in his testimony published on his profile on the social network VKontakte.

He then fled Russia.

Pavel Filatyev is the first active member of the Russian army who publicly criticized the invasion of Ukraine and left the country.

When he came to Paris, he tore up his documents at the airport as a sign of protest.

"You live your whole life in Russia, and nobody cares about you. Human life is worth nothing. And this war in Ukraine, I won't go into details, our young men died there, and I still don't know why," Filatyev said.

"Now I'm emotionally torn and angry. Because a person wants to do something for his homeland, he loves his country. On the other hand, we have a government that really doesn't care," he added. "These are my documents... Confirmation that I am a veteran... My military card... My Russian passport... Foreign passport... You see, it's all a pile of garbage," Filatyev said and tore up the documents and threw them down the toilet.

"I love Russia, I love Russians. But Putin is not Russia, our government is not Russia. Putin - f*ck off!" he added.

"The Kremlin may take revenge on me"

Just to recall that Filatyev told CNN that his fellow soldiers are tired, hungry and disappointed and that Russia's war efforts are destroying peaceful lives.

"We realized that we are involved in a serious conflict in which we are only destroying cities and not actually liberating anyone. Many realized that there is no reason that our government is trying to convince us of. They realized that it is all a lie. We are only destroying peaceful lives. That fact had an immense impact on our morale. That feeling that we are not doing anything good," Filatyev (33) recently told CNN.

Filatyev says that corruption and repression are widespread in his homeland, and that his unit, which was based in Crimea and entered Kherson at the beginning of the war, was poorly equipped and did not receive sufficient explanations for the invasion of Ukraine.

According to Filatyev, the soldiers and their commanders did not know what was expected of them in Ukraine. He added that they soon became disillusioned with the government's reasoning for the invasion, after they arrived in Kherson and faced resistance from the local population, who did not want to be "liberated".

Filatyev served as a paratrooper in the Russian 56th Air Assault Regiment.

He participated in the attacks on the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.

Then, due to an injury, he was evacuated from the front line.

He told CNN that the Russian military lacked basic equipment as well as drones.

Filatyev fled Russia after giving several media interviews, but suggested the Kremlin could retaliate against him for his public appearance.