As Winter Begins, Russian Military Commander Makes Video Appeal: "Boys Are Freezing"

A video appeal made by the commander of a Russian regiment seeking more equipment and medical supplies for the fight in Ukraine is going viral. The appeal comes just ahead of the harsh winter that's about to begin. Sergei Tsivilyov, the commander of a group of mobilised soldiers from Russia's Kemerovo Oblast region, is heard saying in the video that the men arrived nearly "completely exposed".

As the video began, the military commander said, "I'm a combat training instructor of the 247th regiment, Stavropol city. I'd like to appeal to the governor of Kemerovo region, Sergei Yevgenyevich."

Watch the video:

Video appeal from the instructor of the 247th Airborne Assault Regiment to the Governor of the Kemerovo Region, Sergei Tsivilev.

The man says that the mobilized have no equipment and protection at all. From medicine, they only have one tourniquet. pic.twitter.com/GFQmTZMKqx

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) December 11, 2022

"The fighters that you sent to us to Stavropol Krai are almost completely naked. They have no medical supplies. The medical supplies they have is only one tourniquet," he added.

Tsivilyov then asked one of the fighters to come forward.

"They have almost no protection, just two pieces of body armour. Everything else, the sides, are completely exposed. They have practically nothing else," the commander said.

"No thermal underwear, the boys are freezing. But to complete objective on the territory of Ukraine, it's quite cold there," the military commander added.

The clip has been posted on Twitter by user Dmitri, who is with WarTranslated, an independent project that translates material about the war into English. It has been viewed more than 4.27 lakh times.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Western allies have pledged an additional $1.1 billion in emergency winter aid, responding to requests from President Volodymyr Zelensky to help the country withstand Russia's onslaught against its energy grid.

In a video message, Zelensky said Ukraine needed assistance worth around 800 million euros in the short term for its battered energy sector.