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Jun 7 12 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1/ Uranus appears to have run out of gas. Attempts to recruit Russian rocket scientists and engineers to become "Imperial Stormtroopers" fighting in a "Uranus Battalion" in Ukraine seem to have attracted few volunteers. However, they may still be forced to join. ⬇️ Image
2/ A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted a recruitment campaign at Roscosmos, Russia's space agency (see thread below). Siren News reports that it's part of a bigger effort that's been ongoing since October 2022.
3/ Siren says that the Uranus Battalion was established by the Association of Sports, Patriotic and Veteran Organisations "Shield and Sword", with Roskosmos providing "leading support" to the battalion. Uranus is on display on its own Telegram and YouTube channels. Image
4/ Several Roscosmos subsidiaries have also posted internal advertisements inviting staff to enter Uranus. These include the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau in Miass, and NPO Automation in Yekaterinburg. The Yekaterinburg branch of Putin's party, United Russia, has also promoted it.
5/ The battalion calls its members "Imperial Stormtroopers" in its online promotions and claims to have 250 members already. Uranus is open to men who are fit and aged up to 60. According to a Siren source, Roscosmos aims to put 400 staff from all its enterprises into Uranus. Image
6/ Russian government security rules create some potential blockages for Uranus, however. Siren reports that a Makayev security officer hosted a staff meeting last month to attract recruits.
7/ "A staff member asked the recruiter what would happen if a battalion soldier was captured, since all of the [Makayev] personnel have state secret clearance and are not allowed to travel abroad.
8/ "The speaker replied that "in isolation from production and the team" the employees of the centre 'do not pose a danger.""
9/ However, the potential recruits from Makayev apparently think Uranus doesn't smell right. According to Siren, "Advertisements for contract military service have been posted on almost all the floors of the office. Image
10/ "However, over the past month there have been no reports of employees signing up as volunteers in the news feed of the enterprise's internal website. Therefore, it is likely that no one has accepted, a source at the missile centre told Siren."
11/ That may not be the end of the matter, though, as a Makayev employee says: "If there are no volunteers, they will be forced to do it." Roscosmos employees may find themselves stuck in Uranus whether they like it or not. /end

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More from @ChrisO_wiki

Jun 8
1/ The Kakhovka reservoir has reached 'dead pool' only two days after its dam was breached, and is no longer able to supply settlements or the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It's expected to stabilise at a drastically lower depth and to shrink the Dnipro's width by kilometers.⬇️ Image
2/ The head of Ukraine's hydroelecticity provider, Ukrhydroenergo, has said that as of the evening of Thursday 8 June, the reservoir has reached a depth of 12.5 metres (41 ft). This is 20 cm below the point known as 'dead pool', when water can no longer flow from the reservoir.
3/ Ihor Syrota says that water can now no longer flow to settlements and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The water level is likely to stabilise at around 3 m (9 ft). It's dropping around 1 m daily, so the outflow will continue for another 7-8 days.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 8
1/ Adventures in Russian corruption: After dozens of people have been killed or sickened by contaminated cider, the Russian Ministry of the Interior's investigation has identified the alcohol's source: the Russian Ministry of the Interior (MVD). ⬇️
2/ The MVD has admitted that the contaminated alcohol in the deadly "Mister Cider" drinks came from one of its own warehouses. It had been stolen by two residents of Samara and a police officer who let them in. Image
3/ According to an MVD statement, "police officers established the theft of the alcohol-containing liquid from the warehouse of the Federal State Institution "Centre of economic and service support (TsKhiSO) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Samara region."
Read 7 tweets
Jun 8
With the Ukrainian counter-offensive now clearly underway and heavy fighting reported south of Orikhiv, I'm re-upping @ian_matveev's analysis from April of the challenges that the Ukrainians will be facing. Worth noting that the fighting is happening exactly where Ian predicted.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 8
1/ Russian conscripts appear to be performing what are effectively frontline combat duties under the guise of training activities, leading to the deaths of three and seven more being injured last Thursday. A regional ombudsman has called for them to be withdrawn. ⬇️ ImageImage
2/ It was reported last week that a vehicle with ten soldiers on board was struck by a missile near the Russia-Ukraine border. Three conscripts were reportedly killed and seven more people were wounded, two seriously.
3/ The dead conscripts have been named as 24-year-old Kirill Maksakov (pictured on the left at the top of this thread) from the Sverdlovsk region, Aziz Alikbekov from Dagestan and Stepan Mezin from Bashkortostan (pictured right).
Read 26 tweets
Jun 7
1/ News that residents of the occupied Russian left bank of the Dnipro have effectively been left to fend for themselves amidst the man-made flooding has highlighted the disastrous state of emergency preparation in the region.
2/ The VChkK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that there has been "a staff collapse in the Emergencies Ministry."
3/ "Rescuers from the Luhansk People's Republic, to a lesser extent the Donetsk People's Republic, Crimean and Sevastopol authorities are dealing with the large-scale emergency. No one from the ministry's central office is on site.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 7
1/ This very good thread from @TomGiuretis highlights the vital role that the canals fed from the Dnipro play in the agriculture of southern Ukraine and Crimea. But I thought I'd add a historical perspective to how the canals changed life there.
2/ As Tom says, and I can attest as well having been there myself, it's a completely flat landscape of endless fields. It's watered by four major canals and innumerable side canals and irrigation channels. The Dnipro's water has made it a hugely productive farming region. Image
3/ That, however, is quite a recent development. The canals were only built between the 1950s and the 1980s by the Soviet Union. Before then, the region south of the Dnipro was a hot, arid, dusty plain with frequent droughts, dust storms and crop failures.
Read 17 tweets

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