1/ People across Russia are freezing in their homes in temperatures as low as -38°C because essential utility workers have been mobilised – even after the supposed end of mobilisation – and sent to Ukraine, hindering repair and maintenance work at home. ⬇️
2/ The "We can explain" Telegram channel reports that several regions and cities in Russia, including Astrakhan, Krasnodar and Rostov, are suffering problems with their communal heating systems because the engineers responsible for maintaining them have been mobilised.
3/ A source in Astrakhan's municipal services says: "We have appealed to the military registration and enlistment offices and officials, explaining that the heating season is coming soon and we need people, but we never received a clear answer."
4/ Despite being engineers, most of the mobilised workers were used as infantry. They were "told to hold a difficult section of the front, although there were no professional soldiers among our men, some had just finished their military studies, others were already in their 40s."
5/ Some of the men, who were fighting near the village of Mirolyubivka, were forgotten about by their commanders during the retreat from Kherson. They were left behind, resulting in them being captured by the Ukrainians.
6/ Two of the municipal workers were sent to serve with engineering forces near Kherson, then subsequently sent for training in Belarus before they are due to return to Crimea to build defences there.
7/ The source notes that the men were given draft notices even after the partial mobilisation was claimed to have ended. Essential workers are supposed to be exempt from mobilisation, but military officials have widely ignored such exemptions.
8/ Problems with heating have been reported across Russia, exacerbated by a lack of engineering personnel. Residents of Novosibirsk were left without heating in mid-November in temperatures of -30°C due to a damaged pipeline.
9/ 270 apartment blocks housing 70,000 people in Abakan faced a similar problem around the same time. At Artemovsky, a heating breakdown lasted for several days in temperatures of -38°C. /end
1/ Russian soldiers are heavily dependent on aid provided by volunteers, but are afraid to publicly identify their units because they fear being sent to their deaths by their commanders if they disclose that they are short of vital supplies. ⬇️
2/ The prominent Russian Telegram channel 'Two Majors' harshly criticises the attitude of Russian commanders towards volunteer efforts, which have to be undertaken under a cloud of secrecy and fear – in marked contrast to comparable Ukrainian efforts.
3/ "Do you know, dear readers, why we often do not write specific names of units and parts, glorious cities of their permanent deployment points, which sent their heroes to the front?
1/ Uranus has been severely pounded in Ukraine over the past two years. The Russian space agency's head says 105 of its employees have died and 342 have been wounded fighting in Ukraine, likely as members of the Roscosmos volunteer battalion. ⬇️
2/ In an event marking Cosmonautics Day (12 April), Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov told attendees: "While carrying out combat missions, 342 of our comrades were wounded, and 105 colleagues passed away forever or went missing."
3/ Roscosmos established the Uranus battalion, which came out of Miass, in 2023 as a vehicle for the space agency's employees to participate in the war in Ukraine. The battalion calls its fighters "Imperial Stormtroopers".
1/ Russian commanders routinely tie soldiers to trees, sometimes for days on end, as a punishment for disciplinary offences. In some cases they are deliberately left to be killed by Ukrainian drones. This thread compiles filmed instances of 'tree punishments'.
2/ Tied to a tree and left to be killed by Ukrainian drones - a practice called 'sacrificing to Baba Yaga'.
1/ The Washington Post reports that international travel to the US from almost everywhere has collapsed by up to a third in some cases. It's a clear sign that foreign travellers are being repelled by Trump's rhetoric and policies, and is likely to cost the US billions. ⬇️
2/ Particularly striking drops from countries which were previously been close US allies:
🇨🇴 Colombia: -33%
🇩🇪 Germany: -28%
🇪🇸 Spain: -25%
🇰🇷 South Korea: -15%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom -14%
Summer bookings by European tourists are reportedly down by 25%.
3/ Goldman Sachs predicts that losses from deterred foreign travel could reach almost $90 billion, while Bloomberg predicts the loss of $20 billion in retail spending from international tourists.
1/ Russian commanders are robbing and deliberately killing their men, forcing female subordinates into sex and engaging in corruption with impunity, due to attitudes in the Russian army that a Russian commentator says are unchanged since the 19th century. ⬇️
2/ Over the past three years of war in Ukraine, abuses by Russian officers have frequently been reported. Dissent is often punished by sending the culprits to die in unsupported assaults (an approach nicknamed Puzikism, after one particularly notorious commander).
3/ Theft from subordinates is commonplace, with men imprisoned under false pretences, made to pay bribes to be released, or sometimes even murdered.
1/ Only 40% of US Republicans see Russia as an enemy, a majority have a negative opinion of NATO, and an overwhelming majority say they are unconcerned about Russia invading other countries or the consequences of Russia winning in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ A new poll by Pew Research has found that the share of Americans who consider Russia an "enemy" has fallen to its lowest number since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This has been driven largely by Republicans and Republican-leaners changing their views on Russia.
3/ In March 2022, the figure stood at 70%; it is now down to 50%. This reflects Republicans shifting from 58% saying Russia is an enemy last year, to only 40% now. There has also been a slight shift among Democrats, with 5% fewer seeing it as an enemy.