Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Convicts recruited to serve in Russia's 'Storm Z' penal units say they face a "disgusting" attitude from doctors and military commanders, are denied salaries and insurance payments when injured, and are sent back to the front line long before their wounds are healed. ⬇️

2/ Storm Z members and their relatives have spoken to the Russian news outlet Verstka about their experiences. Some have gone public with their complaints. Many appear to have become "ghost soldiers", serving secretly without being paid.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1676305016095666186

3/ The recruitment process for Storm Z is very similar to that of the Wagner Group before it was shut down: convicts sign a contract, receive a pardon document and are given an individual identity record. Unlike Wagner, they are paid via a salary card rather than in cash.

4/ One of Verstka's interviewees, 29-year-old Alexey, was originally rejected by Wagner because he had lost two fingers. This was not a problem for the Russian MOD recruiter, who recruited Alexey along with 470 other prisoners from his penal colony.

5/ He says that "many went because of money, and some to be released as soon as possible ... [The recruiters] said we would not be stormtroopers, they said we would stand in the trenches, defend ourselves, they took me without questions, but sent me to the front."

6/ The men were given two weeks' basic training near Rostov before being sent to the front line. On 21 June, less than a month after he arrived in Ukraine, Alexey suffered severe internal injuries in an artillery strike and was taken to hospital at Sevastopol for surgery.

7/ Despite his wounds, he was given only a minimal amount of time to recover. "They gave me 15 days, although doctors said that after my wounds it takes six months to recover.

8/ "It hurts to walk, I can't lift anything, sharp movements cause severe pain, I am constantly on painkillers, I can't straighten up, and the doctors can see it. Every day they tell me they'll send me back tomorrow.

9/ "They say that they will send me to a unit, but there was a boy lying with me, he couldn't walk without a stick, they said that they sent him to a unit, but he stopped contacting me. So they took him to the front."

10/ Alexey says the attitude of the Sevastopol hospital to the Storm Z fighters is "disgusting". "They don't approach us, they are rude, one of the doctors said that you, who are from Storm, are not entitled to anything."

11/ "No good treatment, no insurance payments, no examination by the medical commission. He said it's a directive from the Ministry of Defence. They treat us here as if we were some kind of cripples."

12/ He says that convict soldiers are denied copies of medical documents needed for insurance, and no commissions are held to change or confirm their fitness for service.

13/ Along the way, he lost his salary card and mobile phone so was no longer able to access his online banking facility. When his family asked the MOD for help in restoring access, they said they had no record of Alexey.

14/ This is consistent with other reports that the MOD is treating Storm Z members as "ghost soldiers" – their service is being kept secret and records are being withheld or destroyed.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1680527591583653888

15/ The problems of Storm Z members like Alexey have not entirely been ignored, as he notes, but no concrete action has been taken despite high-profile publicity.

16/ "[Deputy Chair of the State Duma] Anna Kuznetsova came to our hospital with television, allegedly to discuss our problem – payments, lack of dog tags, salary cards, she addressed each of them for 30 seconds – and that was all, and in the end there was no progress.

17/ "Many people are afraid to go somewhere else and speak about their problems, because there will be punishments – they will be sent to the front, where it's all meat, or zeroed out [executed] as deserters".

18/ Another man, Igor, was recruited in April 2023 with two years left to serve of his sentence. Three months later he was taken to hospital after his heel was torn off and his shoulder pieced by shrapnel. His foot is to be amputated. He now regrets signing the contract.

19/ According to his sister, Igor vanished without trace when he joined Storm Z – he became another ghost soldier. "He spent three months at the very front. For three months we didn't know anything about him, we looked everywhere.

20/ "I called the Ministry of Defence, they told me that he was not registered with them, they said to look for him in the PMC "Wagner". He only got in touch when he was in hospital."

21/ Igor still hasn't received his dog tags, documents or salary card three months after signing his contract. His family's appeals to the military prosecutor have been met only with the response that her request would be forwarded to the MOD.

22/ His sister says that convict soldiers are treated very badly both in hospital and on the front line compared to mobilised and contract (professional) soldiers. They are denied contact with their relatives, while they are "harassed and ignored" in hospitals.

23/ According to her, Storm Z members face severe discrimination in medical care. "When there was a question of their transportation to another hospital and the doctor said that the men should be taken first, some chief in military uniform, ...

24/ ...having learnt that they were from "Storm", allegedly said: no, no, no, I will not take anyone from "Storm", you can't take them with [our] people."

This likely reflects the professional military's attitude of contempt towards the convict soldiers.

25/ Another man, Artur, joined Storm Z after being sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment for committing a murder with "particular cruelty". He called his family in early May 2023, told them he had signed a contract with the MOD, and dictated his service number.

26/ After that he disappeared without trace, becoming yet another ghost soldier. His sister says that the prison administration, the military enlistment office, the Defence Ministry and PMC "Wagner" all deny any knowledge of him.

27/ "We want to know where he is. Don't count it as greed, but if there were payments, at least we would know that he is alive, that he is at least somewhere. We called the head of the colony and he said he didn't know where he was."

28/ Artur's sister is sure that he went voluntarily: "I asked him who takes them away, he said that the Ministry of Defence. His term is long. He said it was better to die standing up than to live on his knees for so many more years." /end

Source:
verstka.media/kak-minoborony…