Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Relatives of the Russian soldiers caught in the Ukrainian attack on Makiivka are complaining that they are being given no information and survivors are being left to fend for themselves, despite high-profile promises from Russian officials. ⬇️

2/ Samara governor Dmitry Azarov and Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Goremykin Pushilin have visited wounded men from Makiivka in hospitals in Rostov-on-Don and the 'Donetsk People's Republic'. 60-70 of the wounded will be sent to Samara for treatment.

3/ Six of the survivors are to be given awards on President Putin's orders for "heroism during the tragedy in Makiivka".

Some relatives are still unable to discover what has happened to their loved ones, as there is still no published casualty list.

4/ One woman whose two sons were in the building says that she last spoke with them on 30 December, but she has had no contact with them and no information about them since the attack.

5/ "I called everywhere, even the hotline in Makiivka doesn't work, they simply don't pick up the phone there. But here, at my place of residence, they say that we have no information."

6/ Other relatives are demanding the return of all the "horror survivors" from Makiivka, leaving comments on the social pages of Samara's governor and the regional government. “They need it, we need it. They survived the horror,” one relative wrote.

7/ Another one complains that "the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defence are inactive and do not give any help and support".

Complaints are also being directed at Governor Azarov.

8/ A relative writes: "The guys were promised that they would be sent to Russia for the rehabilitation required for their health and to further reorganise the regiment, as there was practically nothing left of it.

9/ "They also promised to give the guys new uniforms and award them certificates of merit. And now a question: today the guys say with one voice that they are not being sent to Russia, there are no new uniforms, not to mention weapons, the guys were simply left to their fate."

10/ The survivors are said to be seriously psychologically affected by their experiences and need time to recover. "After all, they are not contract soldiers! They are ordinary hard workers who are betrothed to the military in a super fast track."

11/ Investigations are continuing into why so many men were packed into a building well within Ukrainian artillery range. According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, investigators have determined how the 1444th Motor Rifle Regiment's commanders survived the attack.

12/ A source says that the unit's commander, Colonel Roman Yenikeyev, and Vladimir Kuzkin, chief of staff, were absent from the building at the time of the attack because they were "having a New Year feast separately from the personnel".

13/ "Now there is an active search for someone who could be publicly made guilty, which is already a political rather than military issue," according to the source.

14/ The decision by the army to blame the mobilised men's use of mobile phones was done "with the aim of making the dead themselves guilty and to remove the military leadership of the First Army Corps of the DPR from the dock."

15/ According to the independent Russian news outlet Verstka, Russian regional and federal officials have decided to be more open about the losses than in previous mass casualty incidents, such as the sinking of the Moskva, in order to get ahead of 'enemy voices'.

16/ A source tells Verstka: "There were many dead, it would have been hard to hide it. It was better to speak out about the situation, lest enemy voices start talking about it earlier.

17/ "This decision was eventually assessed as the right one - a scandal on the scale it could have been did not break out."

18/ As Verstka notes, in previous incidents the Russian authorities claimed that reports of mass casualties were 'misinformation' or tried to cover them up. This became unsustainable because of the protests of relatives desperate to find out the fate of their loved ones.

19/ To avoid any embarassing public protests, the authorities in Samara region organised officially sanctioned memorial events in several cities, led in Samara itself by the pro-government activist Yekaterina Kolotovkina.

20/ The relatives were reportedly planning to hold their own event but were pre-empted by the local government.

Meanwhile, investigators now believe around 300 people died in Makiivka.

21/ A source tells VChK-OGPU: "In reality, there were more in the vocational school building than the reported 400 mobilised, but now the statistics are being "diluted" by the large number of [dismembered] remains and missing persons." /end

22/ Sources:
🔹 t.me/astrapress/187…
🔹 t.me/horizontal_rus…
🔹 t.me/vchkogpu/35732
🔹 t.me/vchkogpu/35741
🔹 t.me/vchkogpu/35756
🔹 verstka.media/pochemu-vlasti…

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