ChrisO_wiki Profile picture
May 10, 2023 45 tweets 10 min read Read on X
1/ Mobilised Russian soldiers from the Moscow region have described the extreme conditions they face around Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, with men scavenging for food, drinking corpse-contaminated water, and living and fighting amongst piles of rotting unburied bodies. ⬇️ Image
2/ The men's experiences have previously been highlighted in videos recorded by the men themselves, in which they appeal to Putin to reassign them:
3/ And by their relatives, appealing in vain for Putin to return their men from the slaughter:
4/ Many of the men died in repeated failed assaults against heavily fortified Ukrainian positions near Avdiivka. However, some of the survivors got back to Russia and told their stories to their relatives, describing the World War I-style conditions that they experienced. Image
5/ The Moscow region men were part of the first wave of mobilisation, in September 2022. They were designated to serve as artillerymen and were sent to the Serpukhov Military Academy south of Moscow, where they studied gunnery for three months. Image
6/ In December 2022, the men were sent to the 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DNR), where they spent two months waiting for their artillery pieces. They were not even fed – "we did not eat or drink. There was no food, we had to buy everything ourselves." The weapons never turned up.
7/ The men were transferred to the DNR People's Militia on 1 March 2023 – in their own words, their army commanders "sold them to the DNR". The commanders said it was only for a month to give them some combat experience and that they wouldn't go to he front line.
8/ The three howitzer batteries were reorganised into 50-man companies and assault groups were formed from the mobilised men, despite their lack of infantry training. They were mingled with forcibly mobilised convicts from the DNR who were of very variable fighting quality.
9/ "Half of them are normal, half are inadequate," says the wife of one of the Moscow mobiks concerning the DNR convicts. "But my husband got some good ones. Sasha told them thanks for showing him how to [fight]. The commanders were not involved."
10/ On the night of 9-10 March, the men were given three days' worth of food and water and sent to the front line near Avdiivka. They were ordered to capture a Ukrainian-held piece of territory, but the operation turned into a bloody exercise in futility.
11/ "It was impossible to capture anything there," says another wife. "On our side were guys with submachine guns, in small groups of 15 to 45 people. And on the other side there was artillery. What can one do with a submachine gun against a tank?"
12/ The men made no progress in the attempted offensive and spent 12 days, rather than the planned 3, on the front line. "They sat in a trench and didn't even fire a single shot. There were only convicts and mobiks in the trench. Who cares about them, in short."
13/ "Everything is shot at there: you put your hand out of a trench and you are already without an arm. One guy from Dmitrov got his arm shot off like that when he stuck it out of a trench. Another one got hit by a tank, his head flew off. There was nothing left to collect".
14/ The soldiers say they had no artillery or reconnaissance support. "A lot of guys died, they were lost very stupidly. As my husband said, you can't beat a mortar shell with a helmet."
15/ They also had no food or water after the third day and had to scavenge both to stay alive. "When they ran out of food, they had to climb into the cellars of abandoned houses," says a wife. "They ate pickled cucumbers and tomatoes they found there." Image
16/ The men drank water from a well where two corpses were floating, as there was nothing else to drink. "They defined it this way: if the water is salty, it means someone is swimming there".
17/ Requests to evacuate the seriously wounded were ignored – likely leading to many unnecessary deaths. (Similar complaints have been made before about the DNR forces refusing to evacuate wounded Russians.)
18/ Tensions with DNR commanders are also evident from the men's accounts. "The DNR commanders say: 'We have conquered our own [territory], our men have all died. Now our men will sit and you will fight. It's your war, it's not our war."
19/ Corpses piled up around the Russians. "At night you change your position, you run. You lie down to take cover, and there lies a corpse, black already. They are at every turn. The convicts clean them out. They take off their clothes, armour, take things out of their pockets."
20/ It took months for the bodies of the fallen, lying in the open, to be recovered. According to one soldier, men killed in November were only removed in March. "They were wrapped in bags and taken away in cars. Our guys fought literally surrounded by corpses.
21/ "If possible, the dead were stacked in a forest belt and covered so that dogs and rats wouldn't eat them. One guy was killed by a drone; his body was taken to an abandoned school building. He's probably still lying there."
22/ The soldiers' orders seem to have had no regard for the safety of civilians living near the front line. One soldier says that their orders were that before entering a Ukrainian house, you had to throw a grenade and fire a shotgun round inside. But he claims they refused.
23/ "Our people didn't do that. Once we opened the door and there was a family with a child inside. They are civilians. Well, we violated the order and took the people out at night. Because they are human beings."
24/ Despite their predicament, the men still made time for looting in the apparent hope of being able to take 'souvenirs' home. "They take televisions and household appliances from abandoned houses and put them all in empty houses," says a wife.
25/ On 22 March, the mobiks abandoned their positions and retreated, leaving the DNR convicts in the trenches. "The Donetsk convicts were there and they said: 'Go away. We understand why we are here. We can't go back - our own people will shoot us. What are you here for?"
26/ By this time they had sustained about 35% casualties in only 12 days. The dead were buried in a trench and the seriously wounded were left behind. The retreating mobiks had to cross open ground under fire, but were provided with covering fire by the DNR convicts.
27/ The mobiks "moved by running, occasionally rolling to the side of the road into the bushes, then climbing up and running again, bouncing back, running again," before finally making it back to their headquarters.
28/ A wife says that "at the headquarters they called them cowards. This is the level of insanity." After an interrogation, the platoon leaders were immediately taken to the military commandant's office and arrested. The other men were taken away and detained.
29/ More artillery-trained mobiks were sent in to replace the men who had retreated. They took part in a fresh assault during the week after 22 March, which was equally unsuccessful. "The only survivors were those who came back from the first battle wounded and went to hospital."
30/ Each artillery battery had about 50 people in it. Of those in the battery that went into battle after 22 March, the wife of one soldier says, "within three weeks, four men ... were left in the ranks" – a 92% casualty rate. The rest were all listed as missing rather than dead.
31/ In April, the Ukrainians completely destroyed the Russian front line. "The tanks flattened the houses to the ground. Some of the guys stayed there. Apparently, some are alive, some are not. One girl received a telephone call from her husband in the basement. Image
32/ "He said a friend was sitting nearby, he was shell-shocked and did not understand what was happening. He told her they had no food or water."

The men's relatives are lobbying for their return. "We now have two tasks: to take out those who are alive and to take out the dead.
33/ "Our men are followed by other mobilised people. They are sent there in exactly the same way, and exactly the same way they will lie down there. It's an endless meat grinder."
34/ However, their appeals to the Russian government have gone nowhere; all the paperwork is forwarded to the DNR and disappears into a bureaucratic void. "Everywhere I was told that my husband was assigned to the second howitzer battery," says a wife.
35/ "Officially, there is no paperwork that they were assigned to the DNR regiment, it's all based on some verbal orders. It is impossible to prove anything, but the guys keep being sent to assaults. It's unclear why they're being sent to certain death."
36/ Even seriously wounded men are being sent back to the fighting without being treated. In an assault on 15 April, five of ten men from one company were wounded and two were killed; only three were left uninjured. One of the injured was taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds.
37/ He has been unable to get an operation to remove the shrapnel from his body. His sister says: "They told us: if it gets in the way, then you take it out. Their attitude is that they don't care whether he dies with or without shrapnel. They send the shrapnel survivors back." Image
38/ After the publication of the men's videos caused a controversy, some of them were allowed to take leave on condition that they return to the front line. Despite their terrible experiences, at least some of them remain motivated and willing to keep fighting.
39/ One man's wife says that her husband "is very responsible, he has a heightened sense of justice. He also said during his leave that he was going back to die, as he could not survive in such conditions. He will not allow any of his comrades to die while he sits on his ass.
40/ "They are like brothers among themselves, even closer than family."

She is now deeply disillusioned about the war. "Why do we need this war?", she asks. "Is this our territory? We don't need it! No one needs it.
41/ "Our men wanted to help, they went like normal people, no one went into hiding. They went for their country, thinking that the enemy is attacking us. That the enemy is at our borders, that we are defending our country. As our propaganda says, everywhere and everywhere.
42/ So people give their lives for no one knows who. And the DNRites do not give them up at all. There is a part of the population there, the old school, who remember that it was a united country. And the young people are zombified and think that our people made this war.
43/ I conclude that all our government knows about this lawlessness and turns a blind eye. And the guys continue to die for nothing, for no one". /end

Source:
baikal-journal.ru/2023/05/08/u-n…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with ChrisO_wiki

ChrisO_wiki Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ChrisO_wiki

Apr 1
1/ A real estate agent in Russia has aroused controversy for proposing a get-rich scheme: marry a Russian soldier and wait for him to get killed in order to claim his death benefits. Outraged Russian warbloggers say that such schemes are real and need to be stopped. ⬇️
2/ Marina Orlova, founder of the Tomsk agency "Real Estate Empire", has shared a "working plan" for Russian women over 30 to buy an apartment. "It's all easy and simple," she says, "You find a man who serves in the Special Military Operation. He dies, you get 8 million."
3/ Orlova says that "many people" use this scheme now. Not surprisingly, it has prompted outrage and has resulted in calls for her to be investigated. She says her statement was made as a "joke between girlfriends" in an interview and has apologised.
Read 12 tweets
Apr 1
1/ A new poll shows a sharp rise in the number of Republicans who consider Canada, Ukraine and the EU to be enemies of the United States, and a drop in both Republicans and Democrats who consider Russia to be hostile. It shows the impact of Donald Trump's rhetoric. ⬇️ Image
2/ The Economist has published a YouGov poll showing how Trumpian rhetoric and agitation by pro-Trump outlets such as Fox News has transformed Republicans' views towards America's former allies, which have now been recast as enemies.
3/ Before the 2024 election, 12% of Republicans saw Canada as an enemy, and 17% saw the EU similarly. Those figures are now 27% and 29%, having doubled since Trump's return to the presidency.
Read 12 tweets
Apr 1
1/ Russia aims to make up its huge war losses and declining population by encouraging schoolchildren to marry at 18, as part of a "special demographic operation." Some regions have introduced bonus payments for pregnant schoolgirls. ⬇️ Image
2/ Russian schools are to introduce a new course called "Family Studies", to be mandated for students at grades 5-9. The textbooks have already been developed. One section encourages schoolchildren to marry at the age of 18 and highlights the state's support for young families. Image
Image
3/ This includes benefits for families with children, maternity payments, mortgages for young families, and state support for large families. Parents with seven or more children are eligible for an 'Order of Parental Glory' medal, established by Putin in 2008. Image
Read 12 tweets
Mar 31
1/ Ukraine's recent incursion into the Belgorod region east of Sumy has led to a windfall for Russian traffic police. Calling them "werewolves in uniform", Russian warbloggers accuse them of systematically robbing Russian troops responding to the Ukrainian offensive. ⬇️ Image
2/ Russia's police – military and civilian – are notoriously corrupt and, particularly in the case of the military police, have an odious reputation for robbing and even kidnapping military drivers in order to extort money from them.
3/ Now it seems that the Belgorod traffic police are getting in on the act. Russian warbloggers are responding with sarcasm and complaints:
Read 7 tweets
Mar 31
1/ The Trump Administration's bid to force foreign companies around the world to obey its executive order banning diversity, equality and inclusivity (DEI) programmes may pose a stark choice: follow the laws in their own countries or stop doing business with the US government. ⬇️ Image
2/ As previously reported, US officials are sending letters to companies and institutions in multiple countries demanding that they discontinue internal DEI policies as a condition for being an approved supplier of goods or services to the US government.
3/ A US State Department official says: "U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, have communicated to grant-recipient entities, as well as suppliers of products and services, the new framework based on the recent executive orders signed by President Donald Trump."
Read 18 tweets
Mar 30
1/ Ten likely doomed Russian soldiers have issued a desperate appeal from a cellar, where they say they have been sent into a "hopeless situation" without transport, ammunition, communications or even a map. They ask the Russian authorities to intervene against the commanders. ⬇️
2/ The men are from the 110th Motorised Rifle Brigade (military unit 42600), formerly a unit of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' People's Militia before its incorporation into the Russian army. The unit has an unenviable reputation for corruption and brutal treatment of its men.
3/ In the video, the men say they have "defended the land of Donbass, protected civilians for a long time, and now we have been sent to our death." They appear to be ex-convicts (along with one contract soldier) and are part of a 'Storm' assault brigade.
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(