- A Russian soldier lost an arm and was told he'd get prosthetic replacements, a report said.
- It took months, and one of them was just "a metal stick with a plastic tip," he told the outlet.
A Russian soldier who lost an arm fighting in Ukraine said he was promised two prosthetics for it but waited months only for one of them to be a metal stick, a report said.
The man spoke to the Siberia outlet of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was identified in the report as Vadim Sharipov.
RFE/RL reported that the man's left arm was amputated after he was hit by machine-gun fire in October last year.
He told the outlet that after he left the hospital, he was sent to St. Petersburg for rehabilitation and went back home in January.
He then contacted Russia's Social Insurance Fund about getting prosthetics, he told the publication.
But nothing happened for months, RFE/RL reported. The man told the outlet the prosthetics were finally issued in May.
One prosthetic was supposed to essentially be a replacement hand, while the other was to enable various tools and attachments to be added, RFE/RL reported.
But he told the publication neither of them worked for him, saying the one that grasped like a hand was too large, meaning the stump dangled in it, while the other was rudimentary.
"It's just a metal stick with a plastic tip!" The Daily Beast translated from his words in the report.
"Why should I be happy with a stick instead of a prosthesis?!" it also quoted him as saying.
Sharipov told RFE/RL he was suing Russia's Social Insurance Fund.
He said in the report he was aware Russian veterans had not always been well-treated by the state, but he expected better given that prosthetics are cheaper than land or payments that other veterans had been promised.
Russia has been widely criticized for its treatment of its soldiers since it started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The UK Ministry of Defence said in July that about half of Russia's fatalities in Ukraine were preventable and had been caused by things such as slow evacuations of the injured.
Injured Russian soldiers have also reported being sent back to the front lines without getting proper medical treatment.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in October that Russia continued to have "no regard for the lives of its soldiers."