A Russian soldier was promised a prosthetic arm but ended up getting 'a metal stick with a plastic tip'

• A Russian soldier lost his arm fighting in Ukraine. He was told he'd get prosthetic replacements.
• It took months, and he said one of them was just "a metal stick with a plastic tip."
• He's now suing Russia's social security service.

A Russian soldier who lost his arm fighting in Ukraine said he was promised two prosthetics for it, but instead waited months only for one of them to be a metal stick.

The man, Vadim Sharipov, spoke to the Siberian outlet of Radio Free Europe.

He said his arm was amputated after he was hit by machine gun fire in October 2022.

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.

But nothing happened for months. Then, in May, he finally got them.

One prosthetic was supposed to essentially be a replacement hand, while the other was to enable various tools and attachments to be added, he said.

But neither was good.

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!" he said, according to a translation by the Daily Beast.

"Why should I be happy with a stick instead of a prosthesis?!," he added.

Sharipov said he is now suing Russia's Social Insurance Fund.

He said he was aware that Russian veterans have not always been well treated by the state, but he expected better given that prosthetics are cheaper than land or payments, which other veterans have been promised.

Russia has been widely criticized for its treatment of its own soldiers since it started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in July that around half of Russia's fatalities in Ukraine were preventable, and had been caused by things like slow evacuations of the injured.

Injured Russian soldiers have also reported being sent back to the front lines without getting proper medical treatment.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in October that Russia continues to have "no regard for the lives of its soldiers."