🧵Russian MoD finally approves the wording of the stamp which is being stamped on military IDs of "refuseniks", soldiers who refuse to take part in a "special military operation in Ukraine". My source sent me a photo of his friend’s military ID with exactly the same stamp.
"DESERTER! Refused to perform a combat mission! Prone to BETRAYAL!" should be (and is) written on the stamp.
This document with the new wording was published by a Russian lawyer, who helps "refuseniks" to fight for their right to go home instead of fighting in Ukraine. Here’s my recent interview with him. rferl.org/a/russia-ukrai…
The lawyer says this wording is a rude violation of the law. There’s an article in the Russian penal code, devoted to "desertion". 1) Refusing to fight in Ukraine doesn’t equal "desertion". 2) Only a person convicted in court of violating this article can be called a "deserter".
He says every soldier who received such a stamp should go to court and will probably succeed in contesting it.
There are many different examples of such stamps with different wordings since Russian soldiers started to refuse to take part in the war (e.g. since Feb. 23). Now, at least in the Eastern Military District, there’s an attempt to unify them.
The fact itself that Russian army needs such a stamps says that there are a lot of "refuseniks". This is confirmed by multiple reports, like one I did about the 64th motorised rifle brigade. It lost about 300-500 people who refused to fight in Ukraine /END svoboda.org/a/lichnogo-sos…
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Quick 🧵/ Izyum mass graves. 1/11: Geolocation. This cemetery is not new, it’s known among locals as a "forest cemetery" or "Pishanske cemetery" (myizyum.in.ua/forum/viewtopi…) and located here: 49.2207, 37.2444, on the street named after William Shakespeare.
2/11 A long time ago, this cemetery was actually the burial place of unknown Soviet soldiers who died here back in 1942 (polk.ru/forum/index.ph…).
1/4 Hi resolution satellite imagery by @planet of the aftermath of the August 31rd Ukrainian strike on a Russian ammo depot in Tokmak (occupied Zaporizhzhya region, 47.233 35.706).
2/4 Russia says just 15 tons of grain were burned as a result of the strike. It's indeed a granary, but as the OTG footage shows with a very special grain in it, tending to explode, and explode again, and again.
3/4 The reason Russia stores ammo in such a locations is simple: they have their own railway links.
Soldiers from the 1st Motor Rifle Regiment, part of elite Russian unit, 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division (Kalininets, Moscow region), were based in Izyum and massively asked their commander for dismissal on August 30th. Everyone there knew what's going to happen.
This regiment takes part in the invasion since the very beginning, and has tens of confirmed POWs and God knows how many KIAs.
Among those are 3 (!) platoon commanders and 2 deputy commanders. All of them are from anti-aircraft platoons. 2 of them are commander and his deputy from the same 4th platoon. Other guys are from the unit's anti-aircraft division too.
🧵/ link in last tweet. The Ukrainian army liberates cities in villages in the Kharkiv region, trying to encircle Russian forces. Russian soldiers are busy taking photos. Thread about the newly revealed locations of the RU army near Izyum.
This guy, Oleg Budulaj, has fought in Donbass as a "volunteer" since 2015. On Sep. 6th he posted several photos while being in Gorokhovatka, west of Balakliya.
Geolocation enabled when he posted the photo (archive.ph/TBFnG) shows that he posted from here: 49.34856, 37.5275. This is quite a luxury villa with a pool. Together with @cxemu we learned that it belongs to Ukrainian businessman living in UA-controlled territory.
🧵I spoke with a Moscow lawyer, who helps Russian soldiers to legally address issues they face while fighting in Ukraine. To put it mildly, the situation is far from perfect. No rotation, payments are suspended, no payments for those wounded in Crimea or Russia (like Belgorod).
There are several VK and Telegram groups where soldiers can ask for legal help. I have already referred to some posts from those groups in my tweets. Some groups are already taken down by VK admins. Others still exist and mirror perfectly the grim situation in the RU army.
"He has been there since February". This mother of 2 small kids asks if she can legally demand RU MoD to let her husband come home for a while for the first time since the war broke up. No, the lawyer says, she can’t.
🧵/ link in the last tweet. It’s not only Russian tourists who reveal positions of the Ru army by posting photos on social media with geolocation turned on. Soldiers themselves do that too. Here are some recent examples from the Kherson region, area of the UA counter offensive.
On August 27th, a user called "Sergey Shturman" posted 2 photos of himself near BM-21 "Grad"(archive.ph/GnfWc). He didn’t switch off geo, so here it is: water pump station near Berislav. No other buildings are in the vicinity, which proves it's correct (46.8621, 33.3627)
Russian forces and its proxies from the L/DNR often use such civic infrastructure objects to set up their bases. Another set of photos from VK (archive.ph/ImV0r) reveals the base in Berislav itself, in the office of a local water supply company (46.836054, 33.394393).