Russian soldiers 'shooting themselves in the leg' so they can go home

As Russia's war against Ukraine continues, some Russian soldiers are reportedly looking for discarded Ukrainian ammunition to shoot themselves in the leg and be sent back home.

An intercepted call shared by the Eastern European news service Nexta shed light on instances of Russian soldiers who are apparently willing to cause themselves harm with their weapons to get out of Ukraine.

In the audio translation, a man can be heard speaking with his mother back in Russia.

The call was also intercepted by the Ukrainian Security Service, who broadcasted it to highlight how the situation was on the war front.

Within the call, as reported by Daily Mail, the soldier told his mom that they were looking for "some 7.62 bullets, the Ukrainian ones" instead of 5.62mm ammunition being used in Russian AK-74s.

He even added that others "already did this."

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The man, seemingly eager to leave the battlefield, also explained to his mom that he couldn't just come home because people who refuse Putin can face around eight years in prison.

So, he alleged that some troops have started to give each other flesh wounds so that they would get bandages and be sent to "the hospital in Budennovsk" which is in southern Russia.

The soldier further claimed that at least '120' people have been sent "to the hospital with wounds."

Despite this, he also said that the Ukrainian military has blown up all their equipment and he's now scared for his life.

In a report from the New York Times, conservative US estimates that over 7,000 Russians have been killed in the three weeks since the conflict began.

That number has already exceeded that of the number of US troops who fought over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

The grim phone intercept and many others come only days after footage surfaced of a Russian soldier crying and railing against Russian Vladimir Putin for the massacre of children and civilians and children in Ukraine.

In conversation with Interfax Ukraine News Agency, Galkin Sergey Alekseevich, the soldier in question, apologised for Russia's action in Ukraine.

"I apologise for myself, for my squad to every home to every street to every citizen of Ukraine, to the elderly, to women, to children for our invasion of these lands," he said, as noted in a report from The Mirror.

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