Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Mobilised Russians are falling sick en masse with bronchitis and pneumonia at their training camp in Siberia, where they are living in tents in temperatures of -30°C (-22°F) according to their wives. They are being given no medicines and are having to buy their own. ⬇️

2/ Baikal Journal reports that the wives of mobiks from Irkutsk are speaking out about the way their husbands are being treated. One has written on the VK (social media) page of Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev that the men are all sick but aren't being treated:

3/ “There is no proper medical care, they buy medicines themselves, they are already on a third round of antibiotics – and all this in tents. Do you want them not to reach the Special Military Operation zone at all?” She asks the governor to "take action".

4/ According to the wife, her husband was mobilised in October and was taken to the Koltsovo training range in Novosibersk oblast. She says they live in tents heated by wood-burning stoves, with the men sleeping in their clothes and sleeping bags.

5/ The men wash in an inflatable mobile bath in temperatures of -30°C. Not surprisingly, another wife says, they now all have terrible coughs which won't go away.

6/ "My husband went to such a bathhouse and got sick. He went to the health centre and was sent to the polyclinic where he was diagnosed with mild bronchitis. They prescribed medication, including an antibiotic. He was treated, but the cough did not go away.

7/ And now it has worsened again, with high fever. It's the same for everyone in the tent, there are only Irkutsk people there. They bought antibiotics again and started taking them.

8/ The paramedic at the medical station listened to them and said that their lungs were clear: you were taking antibiotics, so drink them. And he sent them back to the tent."

9/ According to another mobilised man at Koltsovo, "We have 95 per cent who are sick". He himself caught bilateral pneumonia and spent a month in hospital before returning to the range in early December.

10/ Many of the men are attempting to cope by drinking alcohol "to make the cold easier". However, alcohol is risky in cold weather as it increases the risk of falling asleep in the cold. "There have been cases of frostbite, someone has already been hospitalised."

11/ The mobiks have also been given inadequate training and poor-quality uniforms. According to a wife, since they arrived at Koltsovo, they have had only three sessions of shooting practice.

12/ "There were no practical classes in medicine at all, the cadets came, they told on their fingers what and how. It seems that they are doing something for snipers, but the infantry mostly just sits in tents."

13/ The men have also been given "horrible breeches, jackets and felt boots". They expect that they will be given unusable body armour, so they are now looking at buying their own. "The price tag for them starts at 140,000 rubles ($2225). There's not enough pay here [to buy it]."

14/ The wives say they support the war but are angry that their husbands are not being adequately prepared for it.

“We believe that all this is [needed] for a just cause, we are proud of the guys, we don’t blame the authorities for this situation.

15/ We are relatives, and we do not allow ourselves to say such things, so as not to damage the spirit of the guys. The question is about the attitude of the authorities themselves – with poor equipment, with conditions, with training, which is not really present.

16/ That is where the big complaints are. If you are sending young men to military service, you will do everything possible so that they are prepared and equipped to fight as they should.

17/ And not in a way that you just give out something for show, don't understand what it is, and then you go on doing whatever you want to do."

Source:
storage.googleapis.com/get_site_copy/…

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1602409…