Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian tank crews are being sent to their deaths en masse in infantry assaults, according to a Russian soldier's plea for help. With tank use now severely limited due to drone strikes, their crews appear to be surplus to requirements. ⬇️

2/ A Russian soldier writes to the warblogger 'Voenkor Kotenok':

"Hello. I can't help but tell you what's really going on in the tank battalion of the 110th Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly the 100th Brigade of the DPR People's Militia).

3/ "Basically, tanks are now hardly taking part in direct combat, and so every two to three weeks, two men from each company in the battalion are drafted into the infantry and sent to assaults, to fortified positions, to support UAVs.

4/ "The companies no longer have three platoons; they exist only on paper, but in reality, all the soldiers were sent to the assault, were killed, or went missing. Now it's time for the 2nd Platoon.

5/ "They recently announced that they were training two more men for the infantry... The tankers are disappearing ingloriously.

Then, most likely, the battalion will be abolished on paper. If there are no men, there will be no tanks, no battalion.

6/ "How can this be stopped? How can this fact be made public? People are ready to go into battle and defend their homeland. But I consider it a crime to waste the lives of tankers like this. After all, tankers are not infantry.

7/ "It's easy to send a tanker to the infantry, but try to quickly turn an infantryman into a tanker, train him, put him in a tank, and go fight the enemy! Try it!

8/ "I beg you, whoever is responsible for this, to stop this outrage and the destruction of our tankers through your own absurd actions. I appeal to the Minister of Defence, to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [i.e. Vladimir Putin]. I ask for your intervention.

9/ "After all, it's an illegal practice to send tankers who have seen combat since the beginning of the Special Military Operaion, who have invaluable experience in tank combat, who know a tank like the back of their hand, who have orders and medals, to assault units.

10/ "These are just a few of the names of the tankers killed and missing in action [who were] recently sent to assault units:

Mikhailov;
Babenko;
Ulyanov;
Soldatov;
Khomyakov;
Isakov;
Poklad;
Nikiforov;
Baychevsky;
Nosovitsky
Popov.

11/ "While I was writing this message, I received information that literally all tankers were being thrown into the assault. A couple of men were left to guard the tanks. The rest [have been told]: forward, everyone, everyone, everyone." /end

Source:
t.me/voenkorKotenok…