1/ Following yesterday's report about Russian commanders illegally detaining mobilised Russians, who were stripped naked and threatened with a mass execution (thread below), the news website ASTRA reports on more basement-prisons in occupied areas. ⬇️
2/ ASTRA quotes from one mobilised man's written refusal to participate in the war in Ukraine. The man, from Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East, is right now being held in a basement in the Donetsk region, according to his wife.
3/ “I cannot kill a person for reasons of conscience. It doesn't fit in my head, how can I kill? I am a civilian who works at an enterprise and feeds his family, takes care of his parents and takes care of his paralyzed grandmother."
4/ "I'm not prepared for this kind of fighting. I was fraudulently brought here by the military."
ASTRA is currently aware of at least two basements in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts where Russian mobilised men who refused to take part in hostilities are being forcibly detained.
5/ All of the men, according to relatives, have written refusal reports and are ready to face investigation and trial, but on Russian territory and in accordance with Russian law, not in illegal basements.
6/ "In the basement they are called traitors and threatened with execution," the wife of a mobilised man from Primorsky Krai, who was taken to war despite having an exemption, told ASTRA.
7/ The basement where the man and other refuseniks are being held is near the villages of Staromlynivka and Staromaiors'ke in Donetsk Region, they said.
8/ Another basement for Russian refuseniks is a six-hour drive away, in Zaitseve (Ilyinovka) in the Luhansk region, a relative of another mobilised man told ASTRA.
9/ "Through psychological pressure, they want them to return to the front line without any preparation," a relative of a mobilised man from the Voronezh region told ASTRA. /end
1/ With winter rapidly approaching, mobilised Russians from Archangelsk are given expired food, rubber boots that won't keep their feet warm, flimsy equipment bags, thin yoga foam mats to sleep on, and lightweight summer sleeping bags. ⬇️
2/ In this video, a mobilised man from Russia's far north-west sarcastically goes through an equipment package provided by Archangelsk oblast governor Alexander Tsybulsky. "We will do yoga", he says, "it will not be cold on the ground."
3/ He shows off the sleeping bag that he's been given – "If the light were brighter, it would shine through" – and the flimsy bag provided to carry his equipment. "Thank you very much, comrade governor", he says.
1/ Mobilised men from Orel in western Russia complain about the very poor quality of the equipment given to them, appeal to the regional governor and wonder what has happened to the money that was supposed to have been spent to fund mobilisation.
2/ In a pair of videos, they say they are carrying their equipment in bags because their backpacks have torn and fallen apart, the knives they were issued have broken, and they are relying on 'humanitarian aid' from relatives.
3/ "Where did the 33 million [rubles] that was allocated for mobilisation go?", they ask. This might be a clue:
1/ Are mobilised Russian soldiers facing a hidden killer – their own health? A series of reports of mobilised men dying before they have been deployed suggest that Russian military recruiters' disregard for their own rules is having a deadly toll. Thread ⬇️
2/ Mobilised men and their relatives have repeatedly spoken of how they were send to military units without even a cursory medical examination, or even in one instance having an examination "in absentia".
3/ People with serious medical disorders, heart disease and infectious diseases, including HIV and heptatitis, have reportedly been mobilised, and even those with obviously disabling conditions like blindness have been issued summonses to army recruitment offices.
1/ Russian Telegram channels are reporting that several Russian soldiers and border guards have been killed or wounded by the explosion of a landmine planted on the Russia-Ukraine border by their own colleagues, though details are unclear. ⬇️
2/ The Cheka-OGPU and ASTRA Telegram channels are reporting mine explosions on the border with Russian casualties in two locations. It's not yet clear whether this represents two separate incidents, or is a single incident that's been misreported.
3/ According to Cheka-OGPU, the mine explosion happened in the area of the Pogar checkpoint in Bryansk oblast, 200 metres from the border between Russia and Ukraine. The mine had previously been installed by the Russians themselves. Two were reported killed and three injured.
1/ The Governor of Primorsky Krai, Oleg Kozhemyako, has published a video denying recent reports that the Russian 155th Marine Brigade suffered huge casualties (see letter below). Video and translation follows ⬇️
2/
On his official Telegram channel, Kozhemyako says:
"We have contacted the commanders of our marines on the front line. These are guys who have been in combat since the beginning of the operation. We trust them.
3/ From them the information about the battles for Pavlivka is as follows:
"The offensive is tough, there are casualties, but far from it."
These are not the words of a staff officer, but of a combat commander.
1/ The independent Russian investigative newspaper The Insider appears to have found the location of a secret Russian basement-prison for refusenik soldiers, the existence of which was earlier reported by ASTRA (see below). Translated extracts follow: ⬇️
2/ According to The Insider, the basement-prison is located in the village of Zavitne Bazhannya, Donetsk oblast. Wives and mothers of refuseniks say that 21 men are being held there, used as labourers and threatened periodically with being sent to the front lines or being shot.
3/ The wife of one man, Elena Kashina, said that her husband had no military experience and the men were given minimal training before deployment. "When they were at the firing range, they were given one day to shoot an automatic rifle.