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 soldiers are once again finding themselves being targeted by the hated military police for petty offences, including "driving with dirty tires" in the middle of the muddy season in Ukraine. "Are we fighting or just wanking?" asks one aggrieved soldier-blogger. ⬇️
2/ The military police have been the subject of complaints for years due to their rampant corruption, violent treatment of soldiers and generally obstructive attitudes.
3/ A fresh wave of shakedowns has been reported from the Russian rear areas in Ukraine, with soldiers being detained and sent to their likely deaths in stormtrooper squads as punishment for petty offences. 'Vault No. 8', a serving soldier and warblogger, reports:
1/ Shooting down drones on the battlefield requires a wide variety of weapons, used in a layered defence, according to a commentary by Russian soldier and warblogger 'Vault 8'. The lessons he suggests likely apply to both sides in the current war. ⬇️
2/ 'Vault 8' has produced "a brief analysis of the use of various weapons against enemy [Ukrainian] drones by our anti-aircraft gunners":
3/ "1) Countering FPV kamikazes.
A combination of electronic warfare and small arms works. Electronic warfare as a passive defense of points and vehicles is primarily static. Small arms are used both from static air defence sites and in mobile hunting groups.
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
2/ The Dutch newspaper reports that two memorial panels installed at the NAC were removed some time earlier this year. They commemorated African-American soldiers who helped liberate Europe from German occupation during World War II.
3/ One of the two panels described how a million African-Americans volunteered for service during World War II, but had to fight against both the enemy and racism on their own side, including segregation within the army itself that confined many to supporting roles.
1/ A Russian soldier fighting near Pokrovsk says that the area is a scene of carnage, with dead Russians lying everywhere. Soldiers' families are being sent death notices even before the men go into assaults. Only four out of his group of 120 men survived one assault. ⬇️
2/ A Russian soldier from Orenburg with the call sign 'Elephant', fighting with the 5th Separate Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade (military unit 41698), has given a vivid account of his experiences fighting near Krasnohorivka and Pokrovsk, and how he was sent to Ukraine.
3/ He says that he signed a military contract in the western Russian city of Ulyanovsk in April 2024. Afterwards, he and several dozen others – including 33 Indian men – were sent to Ukraine and were immediately confined in a basement near Donetsk, to prevent them escaping.
1/ The Russian Minister of Defence, Andrey Belousov, is reported to have ordered a crackdown on corruption in the Russian armed forces. In particular, the widespread practices by commanders of extortion and murder ("zeroing out") are coming under scrutiny. ⬇️
2/ According to a private post to subscribers of the Razvedchik Telegram channel:
"Belousov instructed [Chief of the General Staff] Gerasimov to purge the army of banditry among commanders this winter, a high-ranking military official at the Ministry of Defence reported."
3/ "The head of the ministry demanded the urgent creation of commissions to investigate cases of extortion and so-called "zeroing out"—when soldiers are sent to certain death.
1/ Mobilised Russian soldiers serving on temporary contracts are being threatened en masse with execution if they do not sign contracts, making them permanent soldiers and ineligible for post-war demobilisation. Russian warbloggers are forcefully condemning this practice. ⬇️
2/ Russia began a partial mobilisation of reservists from September 2022 to raise 300,000 troops in the aftermath of Ukraine routing its forces in the Kharkiv region. Their time-limited service has been extended indefinitely by order of Vladimir Putin.
3/ Since then, Russia has chosen to rely more on volunteers who have signed contracts to become permanent professional ('contract') soldiers. Contract soldiers are paid less than the mobilised and are not subject to demobilisation, when it eventually happens.