(CBS NEWS) – Six months into his war on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling for his nation to build a bigger army. He has ordered an increase of 137,000 troops, starting in January.
But if CBS News correspondent Debora Patta’s rare, candid conversation with a Russian paratrooper is anything to go by, Putin’s plans may come up against a growing sense of resentment among the young men sent across Russia’s border to wage the leader’s war in Ukraine.
Paratrooper Pavel Filatyev told Patta that he was so disgusted with the war that he defected and decided to tell his story — despite it putting him at great personal risk. His account is all the more remarkable as he’s the first Russian soldier to break ranks and publish an inside account of what it’s like to fight in Putin’s war.
