Russians Crowdfund Food, Medicines for Troops in Ukraine: Media

Russians are raising money to buy everything from, warm clothes and first aid kits to instant noodles for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

Yevgenia Kuzevanova has started an online group “Help for Soldiers” in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region near the Ural Mountains.

Her group is one of many civilian movements frantically gathering basic equipment for an under-equipped Russian army which has suffered losses over seven months, The Moscow Times reported.

Russia’s defense budget is of the tune of ~65 billion a year, fifth largest in the world. Despite its huge military spending, the work of these grassroots groups reveals how those sent to the frontlines often lack basic supplies, including food, warm clothes and medicine.

Help for Soldiers is currently purchasing warm clothes, dressings, hemostatic, painkillers, cold and cough remedies, antihistamines and anti-shock drugs. Another such crowdfunding group, “We Don’t Give Up On Our Own” said Russian fighters have asked for weather station and barometer, drone, diesel generator, body armor, camouflage netting, camp bed, winter clothing, and polypropylene bags.

Unverified video footage that emerged on Twitter last week showed an officer telling newly mobilized men to buy their own first aid equipment, including sanitary napkins and tampons that they could use to staunch bullet wounds.

The rush to buy supplies from private dealers in the wake of Russian President Vladimir’s announcement of “partial” mobilization last month has meant the price of military equipment has soared in recent days.

The 6B45 body armor — a staple item among Russia’s ground forces that claims to provide protection against a Kalashnikov rifle from as close as 10 meters — was selling over the weekend on online marketplace Avito for 40,000 rubles ($700).

These groups often also send photos and letters, sometimes from children, in an apparent attempt to boost morale. “The soldiers also write letters in response,” Kuzevanova said.

Women-run “Reliable Home Front” runs online auctions in which it sells everything from French designer jackets and Soviet badges to crocheted children’s toys and authentic Russian army ration packs “signed by a soldier” to raise money. The proceeds of the auctions have been used to buy a thermal imaging camera, 30 first aid kits and four pairs of night vision goggles.

“That one of the world’s most well-funded armies lacks such basic equipment suggests the existence of significant corruption and mismanagement,” Sam Cranny-Evans, a military expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank in London, was quoted as saying by The Moscow Times. “There's things like socks, basic equipment that Russian soldiers should have but don't. And that comes back to a culture of corruption that seems to come from the very top.”

In further evidence of possible military graft, a RUSI report published earlier this year found that personal equipment and body armor introduced as part of Russia’s 2012 Ratnik program was widely available to buy on Avito.