Military correspondent quits Russian state-owned TASS news agency after slamming Putin’s ‘insane’ leadership for sending troops to ‘slaughter’ in Ukraine
- A Russian military correspondent who served in Syria has quit his media outlet
- Gleb Irisov, 31, said he heard the horrors of his ex-colleagues dying in Ukraine
- 'The leadership became so insane that it simply threw its own army for slaughter,' he said, adding that middle to lower army ranks were against the war
- Other journalists at TASS, a state news agency, had signed a petition opposing the war which led to the FSB branding the Russian reporters as 'traitors'
![Russian state news agency TASS military correspondent Gleb Irisov, who resigned over the war with Ukraine.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/17/55666063-10640741-image-a-3_1647969506823.jpg)
Russian state news agency TASS military correspondent Gleb Irisov, who resigned over the war with Ukraine.
A military correspondent at Russian state-owned news agency TASS has launched a scathing attack on Vladimir Putin’s 'insane' leadership which is sending his soldiers to 'slaughter' in Ukraine.
Gleb Irisov, 31, has quit and says many of his ex-colleagues opposed the war, leading to action by the FSB security service.
A former army military translator who served in Syria, he realised the horror of the invasion on the first day when some of his old comrades had already died, he said .
'I learned that the situation was simply horrific,' he said.
'The leadership became so insane that it simply threw its own army for slaughter.
'Officers, contract [soldiers], conscripts.'
Official denials that conscripts were serving in the war were untrue, he said.
'Putin and [defence minister Sergei] Shoigu threw their poorly prepared, badly-equipped army to slaughter…in a full-scale military conflict in Europe.'
He said the middle and lower ranks had been against the war.
![Gleb Irisov is a war correspondent who previously served in Syria but quit after hearing what is former comrades were experiencing in Ukraine. He faces treachery charges for leaving](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/17/55666061-10640741-image-a-5_1647969524552.jpg)
Gleb Irisov is a war correspondent who previously served in Syria but quit after hearing what is former comrades were experiencing in Ukraine. He faces treachery charges for leaving
![He said the middle and lower ranks of the Russian armed forces are against the war, with the force suffering from sycophancy, corruption and theft](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/17/55666057-10640741-image-m-8_1647969558391.jpg)
He said the middle and lower ranks of the Russian armed forces are against the war, with the force suffering from sycophancy, corruption and theft
He spoke amid estimates that the Russian war dead is now in the tens of thousands.
His own experience of the army showed 'widespread sycophancy, corruption, and theft', he said.
Corruption has gone from being a local phenomenon to a global one under Shoigu.
'It starts from the very bottom: at the level of the brigade, the unit - when the commander filches millions in bonuses from the budget.'
He revealed that journalists at TASS had signed an extraordinary petition opposing the war which led to the FSB’s involvement and critics being branded 'traitors'.
But many employees were 'brainwashed', he said.
He claimed Russians are told 'bull****' on TV over the war.
His choice had been to stay at TASS as part of a propaganda machine - or face accusations of treachery for opposing the Kremlin.
'To become a war criminal or against the state - the choice was obvious for me,' he said.
A top woman TV presenter who last week quit Gazprom-Media’s NTV channel said that many journalists pumping out Putin propaganda disagree with the war.
'Most of them do not sympathise at all with what is happening now - all this hell, horror,' said Liliya Gildeyeva, 45, who left with her daughter into exile.
![Liliya Gildeyeva from Gazprom-Media’s NTV channel fled with her daughter into exhile](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/17/55665849-10640741-image-a-6_1647969543990.jpg)
Liliya Gildeyeva from Gazprom-Media’s NTV channel fled with her daughter into exhile
![She said her choice had been to side with war criminals or turn against the state, risking her and her daughter's livelihoods](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/17/55666059-10640741-image-a-7_1647969546603.jpg)
She said her choice had been to side with war criminals or turn against the state, risking her and her daughter's livelihoods
Of the war she said: 'I wake up every morning with a thought that this cannot be true.
'This is still some kind of delayed effect of the trauma, because this shock is getting deeper and deeper.'
Asked what she would say to Ukrainian mothers for the pain inflicted by the war, she replied: 'Of course, I would say: "Forgive us."
'But this will not save anyone.
'Everything that has happened is permanent.
'It will affect not only us, but our children and grandchildren too.'
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