1/ Reports that the Russian border in the Belgorod region was only lightly guarded by a small, mostly conscript force has highlighted how Russia's border protection relies on young conscripts, who are poorly armed and barely trained. ⬇️ 
2/ It was reported yesterday that the Graivoron district of the Belgorod region, which was briefly captured by the Russian Volunteer Corps militia on Monday, was guarded only by 23 conscripts plus one professional officer and one mobilised man.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1661488245803483136
3/ A report by the independent Russian media outlet 7x7 describes in detail how conscripts are being used on the Russian border. All Russian male citizens aged from 18 to 27 are subject to a mandatory 12-month draft, with a number of exceptions. They are paid a miserly salary.
4/ This is in a separate category from mobilisation, which applies principally to reservists – people who have previously served either as professional (contract) soldiers or as conscripts. (Legally, however, mobilisation isn't limited just to those categories.)
5/ Importantly, Russian law restricts conscript soldiers to serving only in Russia. The mobilised can be sent abroad and have been heavily involved in the war in Ukraine. Some conscripts were sent to Ukraine at the start of the war but were brought home when this was publicised.
6/ As 7x7 notes, conscripts have been sent in large numbers to the Russian-Ukrainian border, where they have dug trenches, occupied fortified positions and come under Ukrainian fire. At least seven are reported to have been killed. More have been injured, some severely.
7/ 7x7 has interviewed a number of conscripts' mothers to explain the conditions and circumstances in which their sons are serving on what is now an active front line within Russia.
8/ Russia has never treated or trained its conscripts well – those on the border are no exception. According to the conscripts, they were not even given brushes and liquids to clean their rifles, radios and other things. Those serving on the border were given rifles but no ammo.
9/ The mothers say that in six months of service, the conscripts only went to the firing range once or twice, while their commanders submitted false reports about daily training. The men were assigned to military professions that did not correspond to their training.
10/ One conscript was made a medic, although he "didn't even know what aspirin and No-Spa [drotaverine] were for". Others were given old grenade launchers and mortars but no training to fire them. Some were not even trained to use their rifles.
11/ Officially, they were said to have been assigned "to perform rigging work" (unloading and loading heavy objects) as part of a "field trip", as "a regular part of combat training", and were undergoing planned military training exercises. They were told they would go to Crimea.
12/ This mission soon changed to "performing tasks aimed at reinforcing and guarding the state border" and "tasks designed to preserve constitutional order." The conscripts were transported to the border near Belgorod, where they found themselves under regular fire.
13/ The conscripts were at risk even some distance from the front lines. When one group arrived at Valuyki 15 km from the border, they were shelled as soon as they disembarked from their train. They were taken to a nearby field and told to dig in.
14/ "For two days the guys were lying face down in entrenchments," says a mother. "They were afraid even to raise their head. 30 meters from them there were craters. And in a month and a half they were sent to the zero line."
15/ The zero line – the border itself – was only 200-300 meters away from where the conscripts dug themselves in, building shallow trenches and crude shelters with their own labour. They were stationed alone there, with a single professional officer to command them.
16/ The conscripts say they are so close to the border that they can see Ukrainian soldiers on the other side. They "live in dugouts, go on patrols and guard like border guards." The actual border guards and Russian national guardsmen are stationed behind them.
17/ As one mother says, "what can they guard the border with? With their bodies? If there's a breakthrough, what will they do?" She says the conscripts are given a radio so that they can contact their commanders and the National Guard, who are in the rear areas.
18/ "So they are able to report that we have been breached and they are then killed, because they cannot do anything against the enemy. They stand in front of the border guards like targets."
19/ "Adult guys, who are paid for this and joined the border guards on their own free will, are standing behind our untrained minors."
20/ Some of the conscripts were not even given food or water by the army. One conscript told his girlfriend that "they were eating earth there. I laughed and then realised it was no joke." Volunteers and parents brought them fresh clothes and food, which they cooked themselves.
21/ The conscripts say they are treated badly by their commanders, who made parents feed them as well the conscripts. According to a girlfriend, the officers "drink and get violent", and take out their frustrations on the conscripts under their command.
22/ "And when there are inspections, everything is perfect there, and the conscripts are even worse off because they are persecuted."
23/ Conscripts have come under regular Ukrainian shell fire and drone bombing. In one of the deadliest incidents, five died and two more were very badly injured when a border checkpoint at Shebekino, 30 km south-east of Belgorod, was shelled.
https://twitter.com/Lastkombo/status/1584267766147985409
24/ The psychological impact on the conscripts – many of whom are still teenagers – has been considerable. In the Shebekino incident, "three people were torn up like watermelons," says one mother.
25/ In another incident, a conscript was "torn apart by a volley of gunfire in front of his fellow soldiers". Elsewhere, conscripts have had to be dug out of shelters collapsed by shellfire and have sustained serious injuries resulting in amputations and paralysis.
26/ A mother says that her son has told her: "I don't want guts hanging on these walls, do something". Now, she says, "they are afraid to even pick up the phones. My son says he is 'a little bit cuckooed'. They weren't supposed to see this fireworks display of bodies."
27/ According to mothers, their sons are "mentally exhausted, they did not sleep well and were ill because of the cold in the dugouts." Some have contracted pneumonia as a result of the cold and damp.
28/ The conscripts have been in place for months. They have repeatedly been promised they would be rotated out or withdrawn but this hasn't happened, despite appeals to the authorities by their mothers. This has had a deeply demoralising effect on the conscripts.
29/ One mother says: "At first the boys had an adventure. Then there was the expectation that they would be relieved, they were promised. And now there is devastation. They feel betrayed and abandoned. How will they look at this society when they realise they have been used?"
30/ While some of the conscripts are considering signing a contract and joining the army as professional soldiers at the end of their 12 month service, others are dreading the prospect of being subject to mobilisation once they finish conscription and are put on the reserve list.
31/ "Most people try not to think about it," says Anastasia, the girlfriend of one conscript. "There are more of those who are going to flee to Georgia or back home, or will be hiding from mobilisation in the forest."
32/ In the meantime, some of their mothers are pressuring the authorities to withdraw them, or at least move them to a safer place. Anastasia complains, though, that the mothers are "very closed": "they just complain that everything is bad, and do nothing."
33/ The authorities have also put pressure on the men's relatives. 7x7 reports that Tatyana Butskaya, a United Russia MP, has asked the Investigative Committee (Russia's equivalent of the FBI) to charge the Council of Mothers and Wives for 'fakes about the army.'"
34/ They are being accused of "hostile anti-state and criminal activities". The military has also retaliated against conscripts whose mothers have complained.
35/ One mother says: "My son called and yelled at me, "Why are you doing all this?" This activity was brought to his attention through his commander. He was told that because of his mother he would be in trouble too."
36/ A group of mothers was invited to a meeting with Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Before the meeting could take place, however, their sons texted them: "If you go, we will stop communicating with you".
37 Some mothers have not been deterred and continue to campaign for their sons, but they believe that "the main problem is the silence of the [other] mothers. They stop fighting for their children when they receive a letter back or are "pressed" by the police."
38/ Some of their sons want their mothers to fight for them, too. One of the conscripts who witnessed the deaths at Shebekino wrote to his mother to say: "Now the news is fucking spreading."
39/ "If the parents of [the dead] are not stupid, they will start calling all the authorities, ringing, then, perhaps, everyone [will be withdrawn]. If the parents of these who got killed don't fuck it up. But there are other parents involved as well. Both mine and the boys'."
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