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/ Russia's volunteer soldiers (known as kontraktniki) have evolved significantly since the start of the Ukraine war, with the quality of the soldiers steadily decreasing. A Russian commentary describes how the profile of the Russian contract soldier has changed over time. ⬇️
2/ The author of the 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel, one of the relatively few surviving mobilised soldiers from September 2022, writes of his experience of encountering contract soldiers over the course of 2024 to 2025:
3/ "My first personal encounter with them occurred in January-February 2024, when our regiment was deployed to a rear-area training ground as part of a rotation (for only 20 days, but that's not the point).
1/ Russian UAV specialists are being treated as "slaves" and transferred to extremely high-risk assault squads despite their expertise as engineers and programmers, even in the Russian army's most effective UAV unit, according to a bitterly critical Russian commentary. ⬇️
2/ 'Voenkor Kotenok' has published a commentary, which has since mostly been deleted, on the tendency of the Russian army (here referred to euphemistically as the "Laotian army") to compensate for huge manpower losses by transferring scarce specialists into assault squads.
3/ "This issue is not discussed in high-level meetings—it is considered shameful to speak about it. We are referring to slavery, which emerged in the 21st century in the Laotian army during military operations. There are numerous examples. What are we referring to?
1/ Russia's war effort in Ukraine has become critically dependent on self-funded logistics organised by civilian volunteers and the soldiers themselves, who are spending their salaries on basic supplies and equipment that the state does not provide. ⬇️
2/ Soldiers and volunteers have been speaking for some time about shortages of almost everything on the front line, with the gaps being filled at their own expense by 'humanitarian aid' fundraisers and the soldiers' own expenditure.
3/ Fundraising has become increasingly precarious due to a sharp drop in the amount of donations. Volunteers have complained that few people now respond to their appeals, and repeated scandals around the theft of donated aid have not helped.
1/ Sanctions and GPS jamming have had a hugely disruptive effect on Russian civil aviation, according to airline pilots. They have had to fly with suitcases full of old paper charts, turn off critical safety systems, and fly defective aircraft with dubious Chinese components.⬇️
2/ The Russian independent media outlet The Insider has been speaking with a number of airline pilots about the impact of sanctions on their work.
3/ Prior to the imposition of sanctions, Russian airlines used Western aeronautical chart systems such as Jeppesen from the US and Lido from Germany. These were disconnected after sanctions were introduced, leaving Russian airlines without electronic charts.
1/ Ukraine's frequent drone attacks inside Russian territory are getting on Russian nerves, judging by an exceptionally sweary rant by Russian military volunteer and warblogger Evgeny Golman. "Drones are fucking killing us, fucking hell," he declares. ⬇️
2/ "Guys, what the fuck is going on? I was just sitting at the car wash, fucking watching TV, fuck... Okay, the Ministry of Defense is fucking lying about trillions. They would have crushed everyone by now. Why is everyone fucking silent?
3/ "Yesterday, HIMARS fucked Belgorod, fucking hell. There was no power for hours. Stary Oskol without power, Novy Oskol without power, fuck. Drones are fucking killing us, fuck. The whole Belgorod region, fuck. Bryansk, fuck. Kursk, fuck.
1/ Prominent Russian warblogger and fundraiser Roman Alekhin has been forced to give up blogging and fundraising due to the Russian government declaring him to be a 'foreign agent', following a corruption scandal around his fundraising work. ⬇️
3/ While he has not (yet) been charged with any criminal offences, this was followed a week later by Alekhin being declared a 'foreign agent' by the Russian government – effectively forbidding him from all public activity.
3/ While he has not (yet) been charged with any criminal offences, this was followed a week later by Alekhin being declared a 'foreign agent' by the Russian government – effectively forbidding him from all public activity.