“Drug use among “bored” Russian soldiers is widespread, with troops in the trenches smoking “salty” narcotics that induce paranoia and hallucinations – and washing it down with vodka.”

Drug use among “bored” Russian soldiers is said to be widespread, with troops in the trenches smoking the “salty” anesthetic that causes paranoia and hallucinations, Russian media said.

After interviews with dozens of soldiers, drug users and residents of Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, the independent Russian newspaper Verstka reported that drugs were easily accessible to soldiers in the trenches.

“They use drugs out of boredom,” claimed one soldier, adding that being bored while waiting for something to happen is “much worse” than worrying about the side effects of drugs.

He said: “War is when you constantly wait for something and occasionally pray for it to be over. As I smoked salt in the pit, I didn’t care about the possibility of freaking out [bout of paranoia]. “The boredom is even worse.”

According to Verstka, one in ten soldiers smoke marijuana, many also use hard drugs such as “salt” – a synthetic drug called alpha-PVP – and one soldier described smoking the top of a pot with a ballpoint pen and mixing it with vodka washing up .

“It’s just like Las Vegas,” another soldier said. He claimed that a Russian soldier brought him a gram of salt directly in the trenches.

The troops, who often use drugs to escape boredom, said being close to each other in the trenches meant their fellow troops knew who was using drugs.

But supervisors will turn a blind eye as long as the drug users “don’t bother anyone” and don’t leave the shelter to grab something or smoke.

Soldiers confirmed to investigators that it was easy to get drugs in the occupied territories and at the front.

Drug paraphernalia is often found in Russian trenches, as drug mules bring out the substances and equipment – mainly “gunpowder” (amphetamine), “pine cones” (marijuana) and salt.

The materials are provided by local residents or by unwitting volunteers who bring the soldiers’ equipment. Some are even taken to the front by the men themselves, where they have to endure lax control.

Russian soldiers can earn up to 200,000 rubles ($1,700) a month, four times the average salary in the country, and some spend their war-earned money ordering from merchants on the messaging app Telegram.

A popular drug is salt, which can cause paranoia and hallucinations and lead to aggressive behavior or self-harm.

According to a soldier who spoke to Verstka, prices for the various drugs are high due to the risky delivery route. Three syringes of a substance cost 15,000 rubles (£125).

Some Russian soldiers said they had not seen or heard of drug users in the trenches, but admitted to heavy drinking at the front. “Whether they attack from above – God knows,” said the soldier (photo: file photo of Russian soldiers in Mariupol)

Another man who spoke to Verstka, Vadim, lives in occupied Mariupol. He said the price of medicine in the occupied territories is twice as high as in Moscow.

He said he saw Russian soldiers several times high: “I could tell they were not in their right mind.”

Soldiers’ high salaries also attract drug users who hope to fund their addiction with army wages, Private Kirill revealed.

He said he has a 27-year-old comrade who registered, but he does not know “how he got past the medical commission in the Moscow region.”

During a military deployment, this friend began shaking and sweating excessively, which was later diagnosed as an overdose.

The drug culture among Russian soldiers appears to be becoming more widespread, as evidenced by a video shared on Telegram in August showing soldiers in uniform smoking marijuana from a can.

The video’s caption said it was “no surprise that conscripts thrown under fire as cannon fodder at the behest of military leadership are forced to suppress memories of the horrors of war with the help of alcohol and drugs,” according to Newsweek. .

But Vadim told Verstka that he also knew that Ukrainian soldiers were using drugs in Mariupol before the city was occupied by Russia.

Some Russian soldiers said they had not seen or heard of drug users in the trenches, but admitted to heavy drinking at the front. “You know if they fly high,” said the soldier.

He reiterated that the biggest problem at the front was boredom and said he had only fired his weapon twice since March last year.