Reuters

Nearly 90 days into Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian troops have apparently become so demoralized and desperate to quit they’ve begun deliberately injuring themselves.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate on Saturday released audio of what it said was an intercepted call revealing the batshit new trend.

A man identified as a Russian soldier in an air assault brigade based in Ukraine’s Kherson region can be heard venting his frustrations to his mother and explaining why he wants to abandon the fight.

“Why would they [the Ukrainians] surrender? We’re on their land,” the soldier tells his mother. “This won’t end anytime soon. What the hell do I need this for? At 20 years old… I’m not at all interested in Ukraine. I need to come back and resign,” he says.

His astonished mother asks why there are no Russian troops in Ukraine determined to continue the fight for the sake of “patriotism,” but the soldier, Nikita, just scoffs.

“I had a commander… who shot himself in the leg just to get out of here. And that was in the very beginning! What is there to talk about? He served in Chechnya.”

His shocked mother goes on to argue that someone must “defend Russia” to stop the West from attacking, echoing the Kremlin narrative dominant on Russia’s state-controlled news that Putin’s war was launched to stop an imminent NATO assault.

“They will just kill us all, it’ll be World War Four and Russia will lose!” she declares.

“Well, then Putin will maybe change his mind… There are no people, there’s no ammunition,” he said, adding that his own commander had sent letters trying to get his brigade pulled out, to no avail.

He said less than 50 percent of his brigade was left.

“Our people are just disappearing on their own. Some of them vanished without a trace, some were taken prisoner, some are hiding, some are already in Russia,” he said.

The tapped phone chat was not the only one to suggest Russian troops are taking desperate