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/ South Korean workers arrested in Georgia and subsequently deported from the US have been giving more accounts of their experiences. The deportation of over 300 workers has caused political uproar in South Korea and prompted a human rights investigation into their ordeal. ⬇️
2/ The BBC has interviewed three of those arrested. Cheol-yong, a software engineer, says the unarmed workers were held at gunpoint by federal agents.
"Some people tried to explain that they were not criminals, but some agents pointed guns at their chests.
3/ "Have you ever seen a red laser coming out of a gun? It was so shocking that some of the staff members trembled in fear."
Another worker, Mr. A, says that armed agents suddenly burst into his office, handcuffed him, chained his waist and ankles, and put him in a vehicle.
1/ Questions to ask to annoy Russian soldiers, according to the 'Tears of Autumn' Telegram channel: ⬇️
🔺 Why haven't you been in the army since 2014?
🔺 Why have you been in the army since 2014, but still haven't won against the Ukies?
🔺 Why haven't you been in the army since 2022?
🔺 Why are you in the rear in the army?
🔺 Why are you in combat, but not in a trench?
🔺 Why are you in a trench, but so clean?
🔺 Why aren't you wounded?
🔺 Why are you wounded, but not seriously?
🔺 Why aren't you dead?
🔺 Why are you dead, but didn't die heroically?
🔺 Why did you die heroically, but now your wife is using you for "PR"?
1/ The Russian Black Sea Fleet is reportedly in a "systemic crisis" due to manpower problems, a recruitment campaign that is mainly attracting "chronic alcoholics and drug addicts", and ongoing systemic corruption involving stealing repair funds for unseaworthy ships. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that, according to a source, "All vacations have been cancelled, units are overcrowded, and newly arrived contract soldiers are being massively appointed to key positions in the crews."
3/ "About 70% of them are chronic alcoholics and drug addicts. For such “fighters”, the Black Sea Fleet administration has come up with a special “punishment” – transfer to the 810th Separate Marine Brigade.
1/ South Korea's government has announced that it is launching an investigation into human rights abuses said to have been carried out by the United States' ICE agency against South Korean workers deported from Georgia, following further damaging testimony from the deportees. ⬇️
2/ The government said today that it "plans to immediately begin a joint investigation involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the company regarding the human rights violations against our citizens detained in the US state of Georgia."
3/ "To this end, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently consulting with the company representatives." An official says it "will need to discuss specific investigation methods with the company representatives ... We expect to begin as soon as preparations are complete."
1/ Prominent Russian sources are warning that soldiers returning from Ukraine, many of them with PTSD and unable to find jobs, are prime candidates for recruitment into crime and terrorism – especially highly-skilled drone operators. ⬇️
2/ Former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin notes that in just one Russian drone unit, "there are dozens of highly qualified pilot-operators with hundreds of combat sorties and thousands of flight hours", with more having already returned home after completing their contract.
3/ He questions what they will do after the war: "[In] modern cities there are hundreds of thousands of different surveillance cameras, servers with software for decrypting numbers and recognizing faces, but all of them will be useless if suddenly illegal actions are committed…
1/ Russia's Zapad-2025 military exercises have come in for bitter criticism from Russian warbloggers for being a "circus performance" and "dogshit", that ignores the lessons of the war in Ukraine and showcases irrelevant capabilities. ⬇️
2/ The Zapad exercises, which were last held in 2021, are a heavily scripted demonstration of Russian military capabilities. Unlike NATO exercises, they make little contribution to improving military skills, as Russia's failures in 2022 showed vividly.
3/ 'Military Informant' highlights the demonstrations of low-level bombing and airborne landings as particularly pointless, as both capabilities performed disastrously at the start of the invasion and have been used little or not at all since: