NEW: We reviewed more than a thousand pages of Russian military documents left behind in a command bunker in Balakliia, Ukraine. The documents shed new light on Russia's chaotic retreat from the Kharkiv area in Sept. Thread with some of our findings 1/x
The documents - some half burnt in a furnace in the bunker - show Russian troops anxious over the arrival of HIMARS and grappling with desertions and casualties. One soldier said it was like playing "roulette". Ukrainian strikes could land anywhere. reuters.com/investigates/s…
From a roster of daily briefings and other documents seen in the bunker, here was the command structure in place in Balakliia. Ivan Popov headed the military grouping for "Balakliia". He's since been promoted to general, according to his wife. 3/x
More photos from the command bunker. Propaganda posters warned that Ukraine would descend into Nazi rule if the Russian troops left. The furnace at the back of the bunker room was stuffed with documents. They left a plastic bag of more papers to be burned stuck to the furnace
A mixture of soldiers from Russia and separatist Luhansk occupied the building. The head of a Luhansk flame-thrower company recorded in one document that eight of his subordinates had previous convictions - including one man for rape and sexual assault.
Another document, a spreadsheet, showed the pay discrepancy between Russian and Luhansk soldiers. A typical Russian sergeant was paid 202,084 roubles a month in salary plus bonuses, while a sergeant in the separatist force received just 91,200. So less than half.
Throughout July, Russian officers in Balakliia were increasingly anxious about equipment shortages. They finally got 3 quadcopter drones on July 20 but they weren’t ready to fly because their software wasn’t installed yet. They also needed to train soldiers to operate them
Morale was deteriorating. An officer wrote on July 24 that someone called Shtanko was a “bastard” facing disciplinary action because he “pulled back his platoon”. We found Shtanko and his dad. His dad said Shtanko refused an order to “send his men into artillery fire.”
In July, Commander Popov got even worse news: the FSB had learned that Ukrainians were moving HIMARS to the area. Precise strikes followed. An Aug. 30 spreadsheet showed that the force was at only 71% of full strength. The 2nd assault battalion had 49 personnel instead of 240.
Locals in Balakliia were routinely detained and tortured. Relatives of detainees like Tetiana would petition a military commandant called V. "Granit" and try to get them released. He'd turn them away. Granit's office sat across from the police station, where people were tortured.
I found this unsigned curfew card by Granit in his office across the street from the police station. His men also held people in the basement. His name shows up in daily briefing rosters in the command bunker and it appears he attended the meetings in person.
In Sept the Balakliia bunker came under heavy attack. Locals saw soldiers throwing their guns and equipment away and retreating. In this telegram vid shared by @RALee85, you can hear Ukrainian soldiers talking about the complex being hit with HIMARS
Anyways I kind of suck at twitter and I forgot to number the thread but thank you for reading our @specialreports story. Grateful to work with such a superb group of indefatigable reporters and editors @m_tsvetkova @zverev_live @ChristianLowe4 @jmaclondon reuters.com/investigates/s…
For those interested in reading more of our reporting, here's an investigation from earlier this year in Bucha.
And here is another investigation into Russia's long-running infiltration of Ukraine prior to the full-scale invasion.
We've made a selection of documents found in the Balakliia bunker available online. Please see here:
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