1/ Mobilised Russians from Irkutsk are being sent "to slaughter" in Ukraine and have been told that they are "expendable". Their commanders have fired at them to 'motivate' them and their unit has taken so many casualties that it has had to be reconstituted six times. ⬇️
2/ In a video, the men say:
"Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], we turn to you [for help]. We are mobilised from the Irkutsk region, regiment 1439, we were sent to the Donetsk People's Republic from the city of Novosibirsk on 31 December 22.
3/ We ask for your assistance and to deal with the lawless and criminal orders of our command.
4/ We have been transferred to the First Slavic Brigade of the DPR, where they formed assault units out of us soldiers of the territorial defence in one day, sending us to storm the Avdiivka fortifications without any artillery support.
5/ Communications, sappers, reconnaissance have been sent to slaughter. Command told us directly that we are expendable, and that the only chance we have of returning home is getting injured. We do not know the names and ranks of the commanders, as they do not tell us.
6/ There is no point in contacting the local military prosecutor's office, as they are in full collusion with the commanders of the First Slavic Brigade. Soldiers of the battalions of regiment 1439 have already made two appeals before us.
7/ At this point this battalion has been almost completely destroyed. The remnants of the men have also been distributed to the First Slavic Brigade. Due to the situation, we find ourselves in a desperate situation, as the command is indifferent to our lives.
8/ The command is replenishing the unit with new mobilised for the sixth time - this is evidence of the incompetence of our superiors and of the whole unit. Please help. There is nowhere else to turn."
9/ The men have also written desperate text messages to relatives asking for help. They say they are being sent "without cover, without escort, none of the DPR fighters are sent. BMPs drop people off in the field." The BMPs are so unreliable that half broke down en route.
10/ The DPR commanders have reportedly fired from armoured vehicles at the Russian mobiks to 'motivate' them into attacking Ukrainian positions. "Yesterday the DNRovites shot from a BMP at the house [where the men were sheltering] because the guys refused to storm."
11/ Not surprisingly, the assaults have been a bloody debacle. "It's a madhouse, you can't fight like that," one man says. "Yesterday the whole detachment was put down with mortars. They didn't even reach the [Ukrainian] trenches." /end
1/ A senior Russian officer was reportedly killed by his own men after boasting that he would be promoted for sending them to die in assaults, and declaring that he would bring funeral notices to their families and "fuck their wives". He allegedly profited from their deaths. ⬇️
2/ In November 2024, the Russian army announced that Colonel Yevgeny Borisovich Ladnov had "died near Luhansk near Kreminna as a result of artillery shelling on 10 November 2024." He was the commander of the 19th Tank Regiment (military unit 12322).
3/ A man who served under Ladnov, Junior Sergeant Andrey Mikhailovich Perevoshchikov, has given an account of what he says happened to the colonel. According to Perevoshchikov, Ladnov was deliberately sending his men to their deaths en masse and told them so in blunt terms:
1/ Ryazan has become the latest Russian region to introduce bounties for citizens who find recruits to join the Russian army. The initiative has raised concerns that slaves and vulnerable people will be 'sold' to the army for profit, as has already happened in some cases. ⬇️
2/ The 7x7 news outlet reports that the Ryazan regional authorities have approved the introduction of payments to those who attract people to sign a military contract. Recruitment of a local resident will be rewarded with a bounty of 57,500 rubles ($718).
3/ A resident of another region is worth 344,800 rubles ($4,000) and a foreigner is worth 80,500 ($1,062). Government workers and those who are already employed as military recruiters are excluded from the bounty programme. Contracts must be signed by the end of 2025.
1/ A key factor in the current water crisis in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions is the collapse of the existing water infrastructure, in which at least 50% of the already limited supply of water is lost through leaks. People are now reduced to collecting water from the streets. ⬇️
2/ As previously reported, the occupied eastern regions of Ukraine are undergoing a catastrophic shortage of water that Russian commentators have called a "water genocide", caused by war, mismanagement and corruption by the Russian-installed authorities.
3/ The water infrastructure installed by Ukraine before the Russian takeover in 2014 has become dilapidated due to neglect and theft from maintenance budgets. Reservoirs are empty and groundwater is undrinkable due to iron contamination from the region's abandoned mines.
1/ An 'army mafia' has developed within Russia's invasion force in Ukraine, operating with near-impunity to smuggle commodities back into Russia and strip seized industries to sell for personal profit. A Russian commentary highlights the difficulties of tackling it. ⬇️
2/ Russian warblogger Svyatoslav Golikov writes (in carefully elliptical terms) writes of how military crime has developed in occupied Ukraine, following the Russian Army's December 2022 reintroduction of corps and divisions in response to the challenges of the war.
3/ He writes that "a stable symbiosis of local driven entrepreneurs and those same anonymous northerners was formed on the [occupied] territory, providing a very reliable protection [literally 'roof'] for entrepreneurial initiatives, …
1/ With drug use widespread on the Russian front lines, it's not surprising that soldiers are overdosing. In this video, a military medic is providing first aid to a man who has had a drug overdose, prior to sending him to a hospital. ⬇️
2/ There have been many accounts of the scale of drug use in the Russian army – "corruption, drugs, alcohol all around" as one ex-Wagner soldier has put it. At least one in ten Russian soldiers is reported to be using drugs.
3/ Drug use on the front line has been attributed to a variety of factors – boredom, stress from the continuous threat of drone attacks, disillusionment, lack of oversight by absent commanders, ready availability of drugs in the gangster-ridden occupied territories.
1/ Investigations into suspected crimes in the Russian 5th Brigade, including the recent disappearance and possible murder of two officers, are reportedly hampered by an unexpected problem: investigators themselves are disappearing and possibly being murdered. ⬇️
2/ Many accusations have been made against the brigade's senior officers, including "drug trafficking, robberies, looting, extortion, salary theft, trade in fuel and humanitarian aid", following the disappearance of battalion commander Yuri Burakov.
3/ An official investigation is said to have now been opened into Burakov's disappearance after he was summoned to meet his superiors, though previous attempts to investigate the 5th Brigade's affairs have apparently not produced any results. Anastasia Kashevarova writes: