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/ Injured Russian stormtroopers say they have to lie in their own blood, pus and feces while under armed guard in hospitals that are more like prisons. They get expensive, inedible food which they have to pay for themselves, and are sent back to fight before they are healed. ⬇️
2/ A Russian stormtrooper who has been seriously injured twice describes the grim conditions in the hospital where he has been sent. His account is consistent with accounts from other men of overcrowded, insanitary facilities for the war wounded.
3/ Such reports indicate a medical system which is under severe strain from the sheer number of wounded – likely hundreds a day – who need treatment. Many soldiers have taken advantage of hospitalisation to desert, which likely explains the armed guards.
1/ Russia's decision to block Roblox and other popular apps will backfire on the government, a Russian warblogger warns. He asks why the state is willing to "antagonise HUGE swathes of a warring nation" by taking away its "last bit of joy". ⬇️
2/ 'SHAKESPEARE' writes:
"Our tight-knit "good state" blocked Roblox. I have no idea what that is. But it has over 18 million unique users in Russia .
Again: 18,000,000 of our people."
3/ And at the same time, the same "good state" started blocking VPNs. Currently, it's the three most popular protocols. People mainly use them to watch YouTube and torrent.
1/ So-called 'black commanders' are confiscating Russian soldiers' salary cards, then sending them to their deaths, failing to report them missing or killed, and stealing their salaries. This scam is reportedly widespread and has prompted many complaints from soldiers. ⬇️
2/ The 'Brothers in Arms' Telegram channel describes how the scam works:
"'Black commanders' are those who do not report soldiers as missing when communication is lost or a soldier is killed."
3/ "On paper, the person is still listed, and money continues to be deposited into their account. But who has the card? Take a guess. Modern-day “dead souls,” damn it.
1/ A Russian convict soldier has described the gruelling and deadly experience of serving in a 'Storm V' assault unit, from initial training, to facing swarms of Ukrainian drones, and being the only survivor of a bloody battle against dug-in and determined Ukrainian forces. ⬇️
2/ Russian warblogger 'Maxim Kalashnikov' publishes the account of a Storm V soldier of his acquaintance:
"We weren't trained for long. At the Markovka training ground, the instructors, tired of repeating the same thing over and over again, don't care how you're trained."
3/ "The main thing for them is that there are no injuries or accidental hits on their own during shooting. However, these were rare. What did they teach us? Who knows? How did they teach us? Not at all from the point of view of survivability and combat effectiveness.
1/ Russians who were mobilised in 2022-23 and have survived to the present day may not live much longer, as they are reportedly being formed into assault squads, where they will likely be sent to their deaths. This is forecast to lead to a bribery bonanza for commanders. ⬇️
2/ The 'Vault 8' Telegram channel reports:
"Bad news is coming from two directions—the "North" group and Zaporizhzhia."
3/ "There, the threat of "[sign a] contract or [go to an] assault" for mobilised soldiers has shifted to shady tactics: removing mobilised soldiers from the unit's roster and preparing them for transfer.
1/ Civilians under Russian occupation in the Luhansk region are starving and dying of cold because of a breakdown in essential services under the 'Luhansk People's Republic' (LPR), according to a complaint by a Russian warblogger. ⬇️
2/ A significant number of Ukrainians – many of them elderly people, who grew up under the Soviet Union and often still hold pro-Russian views – still live in the frontline Svatove and Kreminna districts. However, they now have no electricity and conditions are reportedly dire.
3/ 'Veterans' Notes' warns that the region faces 'mass casualties' among the civilian population – who are now regarded by the occupation authorities as Russian citizens – if urgent action is not taken to restore power: