Thread by @MrGenoHydra

Long thread in who exactly is fighting on the RU side.

This is a bit more culmination of both several sources and primarily confirmed by various POW interviews by Volodymyr Zolkin (check his channels on YT out, daily interviews) that confirm many of these things.

1/16

Going to touch both RU troops and Luhansk and Donetsk militias known as the DNR and LNR (henceforth referred to as ORDLO for simplicity).

The key issues we need to tackle with the RU force is the main difference between contract and conscript soldiers.

2/16

All men are supposed to serve a term (1year) as conscripts, same concept since Soviet times. Conscripts (by law) are supposed to be only used for the defense of the homeland and are by all means which not unusual for armies with conscription law (see S.K, ISR, Finland).

3/16

There is also the subject of them being known to be essentially under the rule of their officers and can be either found working on jobs the officer sent them to do or even worse, those who know what i'm talking about know.

4/16

Those who don't, i'd rather avoid the subject but know it exists. Conscripts are treated poorly and barely paid.

People who either go to study in universities or those who can pay off are usually well off (née Moscow, St. Pt, Western Russia in general) and they tend to avoid it.

It's usually reserved for the poorer regions and in many cases those are also "Ethnic" regions like Buryatia and Dagestan which have suffered the brunt of the catastrophic casualties or places like the Altai-Krai, inner Russia (Mari-El republic for example), Urals, and Krasnodar.

Difference between the aforementioned western armies is that in many cases Russian conscripts are given and are heavily pushed to sign a contract 3~4 months into the service after their basic training. Therefore the law stopping them from appearing in Ukraine does not apply.

In the case of the current war we've seen people as young as 18(!) who have signed contracts and even a few who either didn't or who have got it signed for them before sending them to Ukraine, and found as POW's or fertilizer.

7/16

Question is why would they agree to do so, why sign a contract instead of just serving a year and f**king off to live their lives peacefully?

8/16

-Better terms of serving in general instead of being used and abused as a conscripts along with higher pay.
-Conscripts usually come from the poorer layers of society (bulk of contract soldiers too) and the poorest regions of Russia.

9/16

So a difference of being paid several times the pay in your local Oblast for a few years extra is extremely alluring and very few can truly stay away from it.

Which now comes to contract soldiers.

10/16

Previously explained as to why many of them signed the contracts in the first place but time to expand on it. And it's dry and simple economic reasoning behind why the army service is so alluring.

11/16

-Stable job & job safety. (not anymore lmao)
-pay comes on time.
-The pay is 2-3x the regular pay in their regions where the realistic salary is 20k~30k Rubles, while army contract pays 60k or higher.
-Extra benefits as well like government given apartments and bonuses.

12/16

This all sounds good but where's the catch?
-contract soldiers are required to serve up until their pension (20 years)
-If they were to quit early they would be required to pay back all of bonuses and most importantly they would be required to give back the apartment

13/16

So effectively if there is one thing that Putin can claim he is like Peter the great (or Russian czars in general) is that he revived the concept of "recruit obligation" of the Russian empire; where families would send one son away for 20~25 years of military service.

14/16

Which puts them in bad situation; effectively enslaving them to the bank/state. This in many cases explains why even in May & June people still went into Ukraine, even with some reports of the war have trickled down despite Roskomnadzor and the horn tooting of Russian propaganda.

And these are not the "short-term" contracts with a 200~300k payout. But people who have been contract soldiers for years. Because it was either that or be broke and potentially homeless.

15/16

And many of which regret that decision immensely. Even those who were lucky enough to survive intact as POWs almost unanimously would refuse to return to Ukraine.

So those who refused effectively did the right move, better to be alive an struggle than dead in a ditch.

16/16

First attempt at proper thread making, will try to format it better later on.

I'll touch the various separatists later on as they're a different can of worms.