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Mar 7, 2023 19 tweets 3 min read Read on X
1/ Russia's deployment system is so dysfunctional that many soldiers are reportedly spending weeks "wandering around in search of their units" in border and rear areas, with some being listed as deserters because they have not reported to the units they cannot find. ⬇️ Image
2/ The Russian pro-war Telegram channel Rybar has highlighted the Kafkaesque situation that many mobilised Russian soldiers are facing due to organisational chaos behind the front line:
3/ "Because of the confusion in the border areas and even deep in the rear, there are whole groups of fighters wandering around in search of their units. Some are even forced to travel to their permanent deployment points just to find out where their unit is now.
4/ "The most unpleasant thing is that people who find themselves in such situations are often mistakenly considered deserters.
5/ "It reaches the point of absurdity: a person can travel along the front lines for weeks in order to find his unit, but at the same time he is listed as a fugitive in his own military registration and enlistment office.
6/ Rybar blames the problems on "a general confusion with management and organisation, as well as a lack of communication between the structures." A large part of the problem is that many mobiks have been assigned to newly created formations:
7/ "Due to the confusion in the process of forming the new units, the commander might not even understand to whom exactly he was subordinated, and the soldiers might only know the number of their battalion."
8/ Ukraine's successful offensives last autumn exacerbated the problem, when "the hastily assembled units fell apart". Rybar comments: "After leaving the battle, soldiers did not know whom to report to.
9/ "Some got as far as the Urals, the Volga Region and even the Far East, but even there could not find information: some units were at the front line in full strength, and there was simply no one there to answer questions about their whereabouts."
10/ Disorganisation also hinders the return of soldiers from hospitals after recovering from injuries: "Soldiers are sometimes released from medical facilities without orders, forcing them to look for their units themselves."
11/ "Many Russian mobiks have been assigned to the army corps of the Donetsk and Luhansk 'People's Republics', presumably to reconstitute them after their own mobilised men were decimated in the earlier stages of the war.
12/ Rybar attributes this "most acute issue" to the republics' army corps' "unresolved status" and reports:
13/ "Soldiers facing such problems are forced to pound the doorsteps of state institutions in search of at least some information, but most often they receive the answer “Go to Donetsk / Luhansk and figure it out there.”"
14/ Exacerbating the problem, Rybar says, the Russian General Staff has ordered the millitary hospitals of the republics to prioritise treatment for wounded soldiers from private military companies, which in practice is likely to largely mean Wagner men.
15/ It's not clear what this means for the treatment of wounded Russian soldiers. Russians serving with DNR units have reported that DNR evacuation teams will only evacuate their own men and lightly wounded Russians, leaving the severely wounded on the battlefield.
16/ Rybar reports that the Russian army is creating special reservoir units to "collect" lost soldiers and either send them to frontline units for further service or be discharged to the reserve. This will give them an official status and ensure they are not treated as deserters.
17/ However, Rybar cautions, "for a complete solution to the problem it is necessary to get rid of the organisational mess when newly formed battalions "hang in the air" and it is unclear to whom they report, …
18/ and the discharged wounded are put outside the hospital gates and sent out to fend for themselves." /end

Source:
t.me/rybar/44346

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More from @ChrisO_wiki

Feb 19
1/ Leaked messages and photographs from a senior Russian general show his role in the murder, torture and abuse of captured Ukrainians, some of whom had their ears cut off. The messages illustrate how routine extreme brutality is in the Russian army, even at senior levels. ⬇️ Image
2/ Major General Roman Demurchiev, Deputy Commander of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation, has been commanding Russian forces in Ukraine since 2022. He has been given awards and promotions for his service. Image
3/ Ukrainian sources have obtained an archive of his personal data by undisclosed means, almost certainly by hacking his phone. The correspondence, published in part by Radio Liberty, includes open references to the mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs.
Read 41 tweets
Feb 19
1/ The barrel of Russia's troubled AK-12 assault rifle bends after intensive use and its trigger mechanism often breaks, according to a Russian warblogger. He says that AK-12s are frequently issued in defective condition, requiring soldiers to buy expensive parts to fix them. ⬇️ Image
2/ The AK-12 has had a troubled history since its launch in 2018 as a replacement for the AK-74M. Described by some as "the worst AK", it has had multiple design, reliability, and functional deficiencies, which led Kalashnikov to issue a simpler "de-modernised" version in 2023.
3/ "No Pasaran" writes:

"Someone asked me why I don't like the AK-12.

Excuse me.

Barrel bending. I've never seen this problem on a Soviet AK, but I've seen it with my own eyes on a Russian-made AK-12."
Read 7 tweets
Feb 19
1/ The near-simultaneous shutdown of Starlink and Telegram are having a massive impact on Russian forces in Ukraine, according to Russian warbloggers. They say that recent Ukrainian advances are a direct consequence of the problems that are being caused. ⬇️ Image
2/ 'Two Majors' writes:

"[W]e can say that it was precisely the combined communication problems that have led to the localized Ukrainian Armed Forces offensives in the south of Kupyansk and in the Zaporizhzhia direction in recent days.
3/ "We didn't make this up; veterans from various parts of the front told us so.

Why are we so angry? Our people are dying there. Our comrades. And if our grumbling can make even a small difference, then it won't have been for nothing that we've all gathered here."
Read 23 tweets
Feb 18
1/ Russia may be preparing to announce a mass mobilisation, a bad peace deal with the US, or confiscate people's savings to fund the war effort, according to Russian warbloggers. They suspect that the government wants to ban Telegram to block public dissent over such moves. ⬇️ Image
2/ Russian officials have hinted strongly that Telegram, which is currently being slowed down and partly blocked by the government, faces a total ban by 1 April 2026. 'Alex Parker Returns' writes (in a since-deleted post) that the government faces a dilemma:
3/ "Either capitulate in accordance with the renewed spirit of Anchorage—freezing the line of contact, surrendering the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and other whimsical proposals that our esteemed partners will come up with along the way, …
Read 33 tweets
Feb 18
1/ An ongoing epidemic of murder and extortion in the Russian army has reached such a level that Russian warbloggers say the army has become a "gangster supermarket". "Extortion under the threat of death has become an entire shadow industry", says one Russian blogger. ⬇️ Image
2/ Fresh reports of men being "zeroed out" by their commanders are published almost daily. Recently leaked data from the Russian human rights commissioner records over 6,000 complaints in 6 months from soldiers and their relatives about abuses in the army.
3/ Corrupt Russian commanders routinely extort their men with the threat of having them murdered, or sending them into unsurvivable assaults. "Life support" bribes – paid either by the men or their relatives to keep them out of assaults – are commonplace.
Read 26 tweets
Feb 18
1/ Why are Russian soldiers so ill-equipped that they are forced to rely on combat donkeys? Russian warbloggers draw a direct connection to cases of egregious military corruption, such as the recent conviction of Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko for stealing 592 million rubles. ⬇️ Image
2/ Kovalenko's case – for which he was fined just 500,000 rubles ($6,519) and spared jail – has attracted outrage from many Russian commentators. As they point out, it is merely one of many similar cases over the past three decades.
3/ 'Informant' writes:

"Why do we see donkeys, horses, and camels at the front?

Why do soldiers go into battle in Ural, Bukhanka, and Niva trucks?

Why do we use an enemy state's satellite constellation for communications and drone control?"
Read 24 tweets

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