Russian troops are hitting the bottle so hard that they're banned from buying alcohol in some regions of partly occupied territories in Ukraine, according to General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The soldiers are getting so drunk while trying to fight in the war in Ukraine that they’re causing serious incidents in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said.
“This leads to numerous disciplinary violations and serious misdemeanors,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The drunken Russian troops’ excessive habit to enjoy a tipple is allegedly causing car accidents, firearm violations, and other incidents while intoxicated.
In a somewhat incongruous move, the Russians are relying on a Santa Claus impersonator, Ivan Sushko, to fend off the wasted Russian troops from buying any alcohol—including beer—in Mykhailivska and Rozdol.
Russian troops, though, have been raiding and grabbing assets from local businesses in Zaporizhzhia, according to the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
The people of Zaporizhzhia, meanwhile, have been subject to enforced disappearances, torture and forced conscription. Russia has been preparing for a mobilization in the region in recent days, and has started to forcibly conscript men in Berdiansk, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, according to the National Resistance Center.
Russian authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is partly under Russian control, have been working in recent days to try selling Ukrainian grain abroad, in a move that has raised concerns that the Russians will generate funds from their conquests. Just last month Russian forces were taking Ukrainian grain from the region to Crimea via train, according to Ukrinform.
The head of the Russian administration in the region has said sales will go to Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, accord go TASS, The New Arab reported.
The Biden administration has been working to convince other countries Russia might try making a grain sale with to avoid purchasing stolen Ukrainian grain, the State Department has said, according to The New York Times.
Russian forces have also been occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, and laying anti-personnel mines to fend off Ukrainians, raising the prospect that any breach of protocol or damage to equipment could lead to radiation exposure. There’s never before been a military takeover of an active nuclear power station.
And while Russian troops have been patrolling around the complex to try to root out spies, or Ukrainians they deem still have allegiances to the Ukrainian territorial defense forces, Ukrainian defense officials have said that they likely will not be going offing after the nuclear power station, as they are more focused on running a counteroffensive in the direction of Kharkiv and Kherson, the Wall Street Journal reported.
