Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The official number of deaths in the Makiivka HIMARS strike is reportedly likely to rise sharply as many bodies, said to have been reduced to "mincemeat", are still being recovered from the rubble. Meanwhile, relatives are concerned that Russia's army is 'hiding' survivors. ⬇️

2/ There is still no agreement among Russian sources about how many people were in the vocational school before it was hit. While the Russian ministry of defence has given an official figure of 63 dead, this likely reflects only the ones that can be identified.

3/ The infamous "Wargonzo" (Semyon Pegov) says that "the death toll is growing as the rubble is cleared". Identifying them is likely to take some time. The wife of one survivor says:

"There are a lot of people there who have been turned into mincemeat.

4/ They weren't even allowed to pick up the dead guys, they weren't allowed to bury them. They were still lying in that place. Many were scattered in such a way that they could not be collected in pieces. There was nothing to cover many of them – just minced meat."

5/ Meanwhile, relatives say they have received no information about their loved ones and are worried that the survivors are being 'hidden' by the army.

One wife says: "There is no information about which hospital the husbands are being taken to.

6/ "You will not be told in any case where they are being taken. It's already the third day [since the attack], many women write to me and call me – they have no news either, and frankly speaking, it's very stressful.

7/ "It is clear that phones broke down, someone was hospitalised, lost their memory... But at least make basic lists, bitch! Who's alive, who's dead, who's in hospital."

8/ Pro-Kremlin journalist Anastasia Kashevarova reports that approximately 216 survivors are "to be sent to the front line or somewhere else out of sight. And some have no documents at all, some have no belongings, weapons and so on."

9/ She suggests that this is being done "so that they can't tell the special commission that will investigate what happened about the real situation."

Not surprisingly, relatives are not happy about this. One wife says the survivors have already been scattered.

10/ "To [send them] on the offensive would be a complete idiocy, given that they have nothing. And to listen to higher authority – for what? This is doom in advance. Those who are wiser, with their superiors, have gone in another direction – to some shelters.

11/ I think they can easily be sent anywhere just to cover up the whole event".

Another relative says the army wants to "write [them] off as unnecessary witnesses."

12/ In a briefly published (but now deleted) video, a survivor from Samara region says that after the explosion, they were given food and temporary shelter before being taken elsewhere in the 'DPR' without explanation:

13/ "They want to take us out of here into the unknown. Our regiment's intelligence said that we are listed as 200 [dead] or missing, we cannot run away because we have our weapons with us and they may declare us deserters."

14/ According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, relatives say some of the survivors are being interviewed by the Main Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and representatives of the military counterintelligence service.

15/ Meanwhile, according to regional social media, the Samara regional administration held ceremonies today in the major cities of the region (Samara, Tolyatti, Syzran and Novokuibyshevsk) to honour those who have died in the 'Special Military Operation', including in Makiivka.

16/ The ceremony in Samara was addressed by Yekaterina Kolotovkina, the wife of the commander of the 2nd Army (wearing an expensive fur coat, as commentators noted), who leads the pro-Putin "Women's Council of the 2nd Guards Red Banner Combined Arms Army."

17/ She gave a bellicose speech blaming the West: "We were left with no choice. Neither we nor our husbands wanted war. But the whole West rallied against us. They rallied to destroy us, us and our children.

18/ "But I assure you: our husbands and sons will not allow it. Today I spoke to my husband ... I asked him to avenge the tears of the mothers, the inconsolable widows, the orphans." /end

Sources:
🔹 theins.ru/news/258314
🔹 t.me/akashevarova/6…
🔹 t.me/vchkogpu/35689
🔹 t.me/vchkogpu/35695
🔹 storage.googleapis.com/istories/news/…

Follow-up thread:

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1610594538107576320