1/ Citizens of the puppet 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DNR) are complaining en masse that they are not being paid their promised compensation for deaths and injuries caused to local residents by the war. The DNR itself admits that it owes more than 38 billion rubles ($467m). ⬇️
2/ Relatives and soldiers of the DNR's armed forces – which have been decimated due to being used as so-called 'meat waves' against Ukrainian positions – have been posting numerous videos complaining about the lack of compensation payments and appealing to Putin for help.
3/ In one video, a wife says: "Starting from September 2022, funding for lump-sum compensation for wounded and killed DNR servicemen for 2022 was terminated. We submitted documents to the commission of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of the DNR.
4/ "There are a lot of us. We applied to all authorities. From the presidential administration to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
5/ "All our appeals are forwarded to the government of the DNR, which redirects them to the Ministry of Labour, and the answers come from there that there is no funding. We write to the deputies and there are no results."
6/ According to the wife of one wounded soldier, his unit "collected all the necessary documents promptly, the medical examiner issued a conclusion of a severe injury.
7/ "In November we submitted all the documents for payment, and for seven months there have been no payments, the allowance during treatment is 30,000 rubles ($371). The answer is the same, there is no funding."
8/ People seeking compensation have complained to the DNR state prosecutor's office, which admitted that an audit had "established the fact of lack of funding for this type of payment, which requires an amount of more than 38 billion rubles."
9/ It's very unlikely that the DNR will be able to pay the sums it owes, as its finances are precarious, its economy is a mess and it's kept afloat only by Russian government funding.
10/ The Russian government has shown little concern previously for the welfare of DNR soldiers and their families, so there seems to be little likelihood that the relatives' video appeals will achieve much. /end
1/ Russian warblogger Roman Alekhin is very upset with @olliecarroll's recent piece in The Economist on infighting between Russian pro-war commentators. Some – including Alekhin – have been declared 'foreign agents' after falling out with the Kremlin. ⬇️
2/ Writing on his Telegram channel, Alekhin complains that the Economist had the cheek to lead the story with his own mugshot:
3/ "Today I was sent a link to The Economist, which placed my photo on its cover with the headline 'Russia’s militant bloggers are clashing with their own regime'"
1/ The US has secretly been working with Russia to develop a new peace plan for Ukraine, according to a report in Axios. The 28-point plan is said to cover peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future US relations with Russia and Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ Axios reports that Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff has been working with his Russian counterpark Kirill Dmitriev to develop the plan, apparently without Ukrainian or European input, with European officials only now being briefed on it.
3/ Dmitriev says that the plan will "address the Ukraine conflict, but also how to restore US-Russia ties [and] address Russia's security concerns."
1/ Russian soldiers say they are being minimally equipped and told to scavenge supplies from corpses in infiltration missions in which most of them will be killed. Artillerymen and drone operators are being expended as stormtroopers. ⬇️
2/ An exchange of short comments between Russian warbloggers who are fighting in Ukraine highlights the realities of Russia's current tactic of sending small, minimally equipped groups of men to infiltrate Ukrainian positions in the face of omnipresent drones.
3/ "In our battalion, they don't even use PKMs [machine guns] for missions right now. Everyone works exclusively with Kalashnikovs. And there are no multi-person teams. Assault teams work in pairs. Six magazines per person. If you want more, scavenge from corpses along the way."
1/ This video of two Russian soldiers being abused by their commander highlights the violence and cruelty now endemic in the Russian army. The unit in question provides a microcosm of how this has now become routine after three and a half years of war.
2/ According to a soldier of the 30th Motorised Rifle Regiment who filmed one man being repeatedly shot with an air rifle and another being put naked into an open-air pit or zindan, "the company commander regularly uses such punishments against undesirable soldiers."
3/ "Moreover, on his orders, bank cards are collected from personnel, supposedly to withdraw funds for the regiment's needs, but the cards are ultimately not returned to the soldiers. After some time, all available funds are withdrawn from the accounts of deceased soldiers."
1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin warns that Russia's recent tactical successes around Pokrovsk and elsewhere are likely to have little effect on the overall trajectory of the war in Ukraine, unless Russia is willing to commit fully to the total defeat and dismemberment of Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ Girkin has issued a fresh letter from a B̵i̵r̵m̵i̵n̵g̵h̵a̵m̵ Kirovo-Chepetsk jail and (somehow, probably by text messages) has given an interview to the Russian news outlet RTVI, giving his current assessment of the state of the war.
3/ In a letter to a friend, he acknowledges that he may have been "a bit "overzealous" in my expressions about Our National Leader and was "more than usually" critical in my assessment of his (and his impeccable team's) performance both during the Special Military Operation…
1/ Russian soldiers fighting near Pokrovsk say they are eating bark to avoid starvation, while they face systematic extortion, embezzlement, and violence from their commanders, who send numerous men to their deaths and routinely execute others who are deemed inconvenient. ⬇️
2/ Vladimir Valerievich Dulyaninov, serving in the 6th Guards Tank Regiment (military unit 93992), has recorded a series of videos which his aunt has released in an apparent effort to pressure the Russian authorities to take action against the regiment's commanders.
3/ Dulyaninov has given a detailed account of the abuses in his unit, which reflect many similar accounts across the Russian army. He says that he is the commander of an assault platoon, but "I've lost many soldiers due to the reckless commanders, the rush and all that."