1/ 18-to-19-year old women from Kamchatka who joined the Russian Army as nurses are being made to sign contracts changing their role to that of motorised riflemen, according to a local regional deputy. He also complains about the treatment of mobilised men from the region. ⬇️
2/ The complaint, written by Dmitry Bobrovskikh to Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov, follows an earlier video by the Kamchatka mobiks complaining that they were being forced to serve in the DNR's 'People's Militia' and fight alongside Storm Z convicts.
3/ Bobrovskikh says he is passing on the complaints of the men's wives. According to them, the men were supposed to have received 3-4 months of combat training in Aleysk in the Altai region. Instead, they spent 6 weeks doing construction work and went to the shooting range twice.
4/ "Some do not have entries in their military IDs about their attachment to their military unit, some do not even have military IDs themselves. The equipment also did not match that which was promised, and even that was not given to everyone."
5/ "To the appeals of our guys to the command of the training ground in Aleisk about giving them commanders, the answer was received – 'We don't need you here, for fuck's sake.'"
6/ "Further, the servicemen of the Kamchatka battalion were divided into two groups, one of which was sent to the place of combat operations. As a result, the group sent to the front line, or as the fighters say "to the ribbon", suffered huge losses.
7/ "Some of the guys of the Kamchatka battalion are now in Rostov, where they are forced to sign a second contract in order to transfer them to the military units of the LPR and DPR in the future.
8/ "However, initially the Kamchatka guys were supposed to serve TOGETHER in the Kamchatka battalion!
9/ "In addition, our Kamchatka girls, many of whom are 18-19 years old, who joined the Kamchatka battalion as nurses, are required to sign in Rostov a second contract to be motorised riflemen! Girls as motorised riflemen!"
10/ Bobrovskikh says that he has corroborated this with the relatives and with the men, via video calls. They have already appealed to the governor, to which he is said to have replied, "What can I do?"
11/ "You may have acted with the best of intentions," writes Bobrovskikh, "but in today's realities, your actions may lead to unjustified deaths of the inhabitants of Kamchatka Territory."
12/ "Vladimir Viktorovich, if you can't do anything about the situation and help our guys, I suggest you stop making impossible promises in advance and stop recruiting volunteers for the Kamchatka battalion!" /end
1/ A toy sheep in Ukrainian national costume has caused a stir in Buryatia, prompting a bomb scare, an evacuation, and an FSB/police intervention. It's the latest in a series of incidents of Ukrainian symbols causing paranoia in Russia.
2/ "Caution, News" reports that 37-year-old Valentina B. from Selenginsk in the Russian republic of Buryatia "found an ownerless toy on the street, took it to the shop "Karina" and posted a photo in the Viber group of the settlement to find the owner."
3/ The toy was a sheep in Ukrainian national costume, which plays the Ukrainian folk song 'Bring Galya water' ('Несе Галя воду') when pressed. However, "it was considered suspicious, the shop was evacuated, and the FSB and OMON [police special forces] were called to the place.
1/ Chechnya's Akhmat battalions are said to be seriously undermined by lack of equipment and training, low morale, and tensions between their Chechen and non-Chechen members – who comprise the majority, despite the battalions being commonly described as "Kadyrovites". ⬇️
2/ Akhmat's creation was announced in June 2022 by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with four groupings: "North Akhmat", "South-Akhmat", "West-Akhmat," and "East-Akhmat". They were originally supposed to be staffed exclusively by ethnic Chechens.
3/ In practice, reports Kavkaz.Realii, the battalions only have an "extremely small proportion" of Chechens. The rest are volunteers from across Russia. According to one member, only 5 men in his 23-strong platoon were Chechens – the others were all of different ethnicities.
1/ Mobilised Russians from Kamchatka in the Russian Far East have posted a video complaining that they have been dumped into the 'Donetsk People's Republic' militia to fight alongside convicts being used for so-called 'meat assaults'. They say they're not morally ready. ⬇️
2/ In the video (part 1 above and part 2 here), the men say they were brought from their training camp in Lensk to the occupied Donetsk region in Ukraine. For unexplained reasons, they've been incorporated into the DNR's 'People's Militia' to serve with Storm Z convicts.
3/ They say they have no records of their new assignment, no orders and no commanding officers with them, and they have all been reassigned to roles they were not prepared for. They have already had casualties and want to be returned to their regular unit.
1/ Russian teenagers who were once hailed as "future Elon Musks" are reported to have been put to work around the clock in frugal conditions to build Shahed kamikaze drones in Tatarstan. They are reportedly shot at close range with paintball guns to weed out "wimps and brats."
2/ The facility has also recruited teenagers from African countries, catfishing them via the dating apps Tinder and Badoo. Alabuga has focused on recruiting girls, as African boys are regarded as "too aggressive and dangerous". It consigns them to "teenage slavery." ⬇️
3/ A report published today has highlighted that Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones are now likely being produced in Russia. The independent Russian news outlets Protocol and RZVRT previously reported they were being assembled in Tatarstan.
1/ Members of a Russian Storm Z penal unit who had previously refused to fight have reportedly been rounded up at gunpoint, their mobile phones shot to prevent them communicating with relatives, and the men taken away to the front line. A few are said to have managed to hide. ⬇️
2/ The men – originally a group of 43 – first appeared in a video of 28 June 2023 refusing to follow "terrible orders" after losing around 110 out of 150 men on the front line. They say they had no ammunition, food or water while they were there.
3/ They subsequently posted a video around 9 July saying that they had been disarmed and dumped in abandoned houses in the occupied village of Rozivka, behind the front lines. Their relatives said they were "waiting to be slaughtered."
1/ Russian soldiers say that Russia's Ministry of Defence is leaving the bodies of dead convicts on the battlefield in Ukraine so that it doesn't have to pay compensation to relatives. Meanwhile, relatives are besieged by scammers claiming to have information. ⬇️
2/ Sever.Realii tells the story of a number of members of the Storm Z penal battalions – convicts recruited from penal colonies across Russia – and their relatives. (See below for more on Storm Z units.)
3/ One man, Mikhail Cherkasova, was killed near Bakhmut on 19 June, as his mother Polina learned from his comrades.
"The boys said, they stood there shooting back all night. A few of them got hit. According to them, [Mikhail] ran, a drone followed him. His legs were blown off.