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/ A sign of how things are now on the Russian front lines: Russian volunteers declare success after raising enough money to buy a truckload of body bags. ⬇️
2/ From the 'Good staff' Telegram channel:
"Our next item to collect is body bags for our fallen comrades.
As hard as it is for us, and it's always hard for me to write about it, the guys have an urgent need for them."
3/ "It would be great to buy 1,000 of them. They're giving us that amount at 171 rubles each...
Friends, remember we started a fundraiser for bags for our fallen comrades.
We managed to collect and purchase 500 bags. The bags were purchased and delivered to the guys.
1/ Ukraine's audacious attack today on a Russian submarine at anchor in Novorossiysk has prompted anger and derision from Russian warbloggers. One complains: "I don't have the strength to comment on this anal fucking anymore." ⬇️
2/ Anatoly Shariy comments that the attack on the submarine Varshavyanka is "totally mindblowing." "Is Novorossiysk missing a submarine?" he asks sarcastically.
'Military Informant' comments gloomily that the damage is likely to be severe:
3/ "It appears the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) [sic, actually an unmanned underwater vehicle, UUV] struck near the Varshavyanka's stern, where the vertical and aft horizontal rudders, as well as the propeller, are located."
1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin says that Russia will only achieve victory if Ukraine is 'defeated and reformatted', but complains that nothing has been done to persuade the Ukrainian people that this is actually a good thing for them. ⬇️
2/ From his suspiciously well-connected prison cell, he writes of his favourite (but distinctly fantastic) scenario, which is likely shared by influential pro-war figures in the Russian elite:
"I see clear criteria after which we could speak of victory."
3/ "Let me reiterate that this is precisely the collapse of the entire so-called Ukrainian state, which was created entirely as an anti-Russian project, as "Anti-Russia," and was bound to sooner or later enter into a military confrontation with the Russian Federation.
1/ Scammers claiming to be 'forensic experts' are reported to be conning hundreds of thousands of dollars from relatives of dead and missing Russian soldiers, to 'identify' their loved ones from heavily pixelated images released by Ukrainian sources. ⬇️
2/ The Russian warblogger and journalist Anastasia Kashevarova reports on the latest scam affecting relatives, who have been plagued by an entire industry of fake mediums, astrologers and other frauds who claim to be able to track down the missing and dead:
3/ "Independent experts profit from the families of the missing and killed, confirming for money that their fighter is theirs using blurry, faceless photos. The attached photos, or simply blurry pixels, are photos from forensic examinations used to identify the fighters.
1/ A member of Russia's military police says that they have been ordered to impose at least 15 fines per day, or face being sent to their deaths in stormtrooper squads. Because they are so widely hated, they are sent to fight alongside convicts and 'undesirables'. ⬇️
2/ The military police, known as the VP, are widely detested by the rest of the Russian military for their corruption, violent treatment of detainees, and tendency to impose fines for trivial breaches of regulations, such as not having the right stamps on official paperwork.
3/ The latter tendency has been the subject of an increasing number of complaints. Russian warbloggers report that that Russian soldiers in the rear areas of Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk are experiencing worsening harassment from the VP.
1/ Mobilised Russian soldiers complain that they have not been paid this month. The reason isn't clear, but it may be part of an ongoing campaign to force them to sign contracts to make them permanent soldiers. ⬇️
2/ Around 300,000 Russians were compulsorily mobilised beginning in September 2022. Although many have since died in Ukraine, thousands of 'mobiks' still remain. They serve under different conditions and pay rates from permanent 'contract' soldiers.
3/ Contract soldiers are those who have voluntarily signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence to serve for a set number of years (currently extended indefinitely).