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
69 years ago today, Hungary faced a momentous choice as a result of its revolution: would it remain part of the Soviet bloc, or become a neutral socialist state in the style of Yugoslavia? And would the Soviet Union accept such a choice?
2/ The government of Imre Nagy had not initially contemplated Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, but faces strong pressure from revolutionary activists who want to restore Hungarian sovereignty and remove all Soviet troops from the country.
3/ Unknown to Nagy, the Soviets had already made the decision the previous day in Moscow to prepare for a massive invasion of Hungary to crush the revolution. Operation Vichr (Whirlwind) had already been put into action, with a four-day countdown to begin the invasion.
1/ Russian hospitals are overflowing with badly injured soldiers, who are lying for days in the hallways without even being treated, due to the doctors being so overworked. The men are not being compensated for their wounds, says one hospitalised soldier. ⬇️
2/ Vladimir Kazayev, a seriously wounded soldier from the 239th Tank Regiment (military unit 89547) of the 90th Tank Division, is being 'treated' at the War Veterans Hospital No. 2 in Moscow. However, he says, conditions there and at other hospitals are dire.
3/ “The hospitals are completely overflowing. The doctors are exhausted. It's hard for them too right now. There are so many 300s [wounded]. They're still bringing in the seriously ill, the very seriously ill. Entire trainloads are being sent to Moscow.
69 years ago today, Hungary celebrated its newfound freedoms – free speech, free assembly, freedom from oppression, and for thousands of people, their physical freedom from Communist jails. But in Moscow, leaders planned to take it all away.
2/ Over 12,000 prisoners are released by the new government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy on the ninth day of the revolution. They include Hungary's most famous political prisoner, Cardinal József Mindszenty, who returns at once to the Archibishop's Palace in Buda.
3/ Further consolidation of the Hungarian state security forces is begun under the auspices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Committee, which aims to bring together the armed forces, police, Border Guard and the new National Guard comprised of ex-insurgents.
1/ The fatal capsizing of a Russian floating crane in Sevastopol has highlighted the inability of the Black Sea Fleet's principal shipyard to build the cranes needed for the construction of new naval vessels, as a critical Russian commentary notes. ⬇️
2/ The PK-400 "Sevastopol" floating crane capsized at the Sevastopol Marine Shipyard in Sevastopol's South Bay on 28 October 2025. The crane has been under construction since 2017, was launched in October 2019, and its 400-ton lifting boom was installed in August 2021.
3/ As 'Military Informant' highlights, this is not the shipyard's first failed crane-building project:
"This situation is the final demonstration of Sevmorzavod's true ability to build anything worthwhile."
69 years ago, the Hungarian Revolution reached a crucial point. With revolutionaries now in control of the country, jubilant crowds hailed a new era of freedom for Hungary. But how far would the Soviet Union let the Hungarians go?
2/ On 30 October 1956, the eighth day of the revolution, violence breaks out again in Budapest as a unit of the newly formed National Guard attempts to seize the headquarters of the Hungarian Communist Party in Republic Square.
3/ The building is occupied by ÁVH secret policemen, despite the abolition of the ÁVH by the new government on the day before. Shooting breaks out, leading to casualties on both sides. Revolutionary insurgents lay siege to the building.
1/ The Russian government is to implement what it calls a 'dronification' rating for Russia's regions, in which they will be assessed for their success in producing UAVs. However, as Russian warblogger 'Military Informant' warns, it's ripe for cheating and perverse incentives. ⬇️
2/ "The "dronification" rating of regions developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (what a term—it makes you want to spit and wash your mouth out) promises, as usual, unprecedented benefits and prosperity for Russia. In the future.
3/ "You can read about it on every fence or hear about it on every radio. But what is likely to happen in reality—in the near future?