1/ The Russian Ministry of Defence is reportedly coercing convicts to join the Russian army by threatening them with being incarcerated alongside men who are available to be raped, regarded as untouchables in Russian prison culture. ⬇️
2/ Russia's prisons operate a brutal caste system based on a sexual hierarchy, where some prisoners are treated as available to be raped by anyone. These men are known as the "cocks", "offended", "lowered", "forced" or "crests", and are made to sleep next to the toilets.
3/ Importantly, "cock" status is treated as being contagious. They are literally untouchable: interacting with "cocks", sharing their food, touching them or their possessions (unless you are raping them) is regarded as being enough to make you a "cock" as well.
4/ The Wagner Group's head Yevgeny Prigozhin (a former convict himself) has explained this distinction and established a separate "cock division" within Wagner for convicts who can't interact with other convicts.
5/ However, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, the Russian MOD is exploiting this untouchability to force non-cock prisoners to sign up for mlitary service. The channel explains:
6/ "First, the inmates are persuaded by ex-convicts who allegedly survived the war, and then they are threatened, even to the point of joining detachments with the "offended".
7/ "According to our source, a certain brigade is “touring” in various Russian prison colonies, the members of which are represented as prisoners who were allegedly recruited into the Wagner PMC, went through the war and were released.
8/ "The 'Zeks' describe how long they had to serve in prison, but thanks to the war they are already free and have money. After this, the convicts are offered not to sign up in the Wagner PMC, but as contract employees of the Ministry of Defence.
9/ "However, according to the source, there are very few people willing to volunteer, since everyone knows that it is virtually impossible to return from the war. The administrative resource is used to its maximum capacity.
10/ "For example, in Tula Region's penal colony No. 1, the prisoners are strongly advised to go to war, fearing that they will soon begin to “turn up the regime” there and it will finally be “red” [i.e. become a 'strict regime', with far tougher conditions].
11/ "At the same time, ordinary prisoners are allegedly being forcibly mixed in with the "offended", who are now being held separately. They threaten in the colony that those who want to avoid this need to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence."
12/ This follows earlier reports that Wagner has been barred from recruiting prisoners, which was in any case resulting in far fewer volunteers due to news of their catastrophic losses reaching Russia's prisons.
13/ The Russian MOD has reportedly sought to create penal battalions for prisoners, but with voluntary enlistment. It's likely that the results have been disappointing, leading to a change to a more coercive approach.
1/ While Telegram is only part of a wider complex of communications systems used in the Russian army, it comprises a keystone without which the wider system falls apart. A commentary by a Russian warblogger explains the Russian army's communications ecosystem in detail. ⬇️
2/ Responding to comments earlier this week by presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 'Vault No. 8' provides a "briefing note" on the role of Telegram in the Russian military communications ecosystem.
3/ "A typical motorised rifle regiment (today, the basic tactical unit—the military unit that holds the front line) utilises several tools to manage its troops:
1/ While the Russia army struggles with the impact of Telegram and Discord being throttled or blocked by the government, Ukraine has long used a highly sophisticated indigenously developed digital command and control system. Russian warbloggers have highlighted the contrast. ⬇️
2/ Detailed accounts such as the one in the thread below illustrate how Telegram – a commercial app run from Dubai – has been a central tool in the Russian kill chain, allowing for rapid responses to Ukrainian actions. Discord was also heavily used.
3/ Although this approach has been effective, it has now deliberately been rendered unusable by the Russian government. 'Two Majors' compares how Ukraine has approached digital command and control, and never made itself reliant on Telegram:
1/ The Russian army is reportedly forcing its soldiers to abandon Telegram and move over to the government-authorised MAX app. A Russian warblogger explains why the transition will prove to be very difficult. ⬇️
"Some challenges of switching from Telegram to MAX for our military personnel.
Telegram doesn't require a Russian number to be linked, making it difficult for adversaries to [de]anonymise users."
3/ "Max requires not only a Russian number but also real data (according to the messenger's rules), which enemy electronic warfare systems will immediately receive (although a Russian number alone is sufficient for the enemy to identify a user).
1/ Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said (very wrongly) that "It's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine ... frontline communications being provided via Telegram or any other messenger." Warblogger Nikita Tretyakov has a list of other 'unimaginables'. ⬇️
2/ "What else is unimaginable?
It's unimaginable that just a week ago, our troops' communications relied on an enemy country's satellite constellation.
3/ "It's unimaginable that soldiers still obtain many essential items for war and military life (anti-thermal blankets, radios, gasoline-powered and electric tools, inverter generators, etc.) almost exclusively from their salaries or from volunteers.
1/ Russian warbloggers are outraged at being told by a journalist that it's their own fault that the Russian government is restricting Telegram. They argue that if not for the warblogger community, the military's lies would have gone unchallenged – which is exactly the point. ⬇️
2/ Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Ivan Pankin has prompted fury with his claim that "endless nameless insiders, all those endless bloggers, the smartest people on earth who know everything and who have been spreading all sorts of nonsense" have annoyed the Russian government.
3/ He is almost certainly correct, but the warbloggers aren't having any of it and have responded angrily. They claim they have been consistently right in warning about the failures of the Russian military, to the overall benefit of the war effort and Russian population.
1/ In January 2026, Ukraine reported killing 34,000 Russian soldiers – on average 1,096 a day, or 7,846 per week. Thousands of Ukrainians have likely died in the same period. Last month in Ukraine was much bloodier than the average monthly death toll at Auschwitz. ⬇️
2/ The extraordinary lethality of the Ukraine war stands out in comparison to recent wars and mass killings:
🔺 At least 7,000 people are reported to have been killed in the recent Iranian uprising. More have died in Ukraine in each week of last month.
3/🔺 At least 84,000 people died in the Gaza war between 7 October 2023 and 10 October 2025 – an average of 3,500 per week. The number of weekly fatalities in the Ukraine war last month alone was more than twice Gaza's monthly average.