Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian convicts fighting in Ukraine are becoming 'ghost soldiers' when they die. Their relatives lack any documentation that they ever signed contracts and are being denied compensation for their deaths, and their bodies are not being returned for burial. ⬇️

2/ The 'ghost soldier' phenomenon has been noted before, with recruited convicts reporting that they were serving in secret without pay, documentation, or dog tags to identify bodies.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1681212438639702017

3/ This situation arose after the Russian Ministry of Defence began recruiting from Russia's prison colonies, after the Wagner Group was banned from doing so in January 2023. Convicts were recruited into 'Storm Z' units to carry out so-called "meat assaults".

4/ One prisoner, Dmitri, recalls that a lieutenant general "arrived and began to tell the story from 1917 [sic]: about the fact that we fought against fascism, and the like. And that now is the moment when we need to take up arms again."

5/ Patriotism was not the main motivator for the convicts, however. They were promised a pardon and a salary of 205,000 rubles ($2,107) a month. Pavel, another convict who served with Storm Z, comments:

6/ "Everything's great! 3 million ($30,839) for a wound, 5 million ($51,398) for death. And on combat missions they also promised 8,000 rubles ($82) a day for each piece of equipment that was shot down."

7/ Dmitri says that there were "a lot of willing participants, but not everyone was taken. The "bad-tempered" – those who were in prison for violent offences and maniacs – were not taken to the war. There were also those whom the colony administration itself crossed off the list.

8/ "They were needed in the camp: a stoker or just a man with hands or a head."

9/ However, the convicts' situation was much less favourable than the deal previously offered by Wagner. They were not given any documents and were told that they would only be pardoned after 18 months, rather than 6 months in Wagner.

10/ In reality, this promise seems to have been broken already. There have been multiple reports from ex-convicts that they have been imprisoned and threatened with torture or execution unless they sign a fresh contract.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1714017302851530946

11/ "The only document that we eventually received in our hands was some incomprehensible piece of paper with the seal of the 'People’s Militia of the DPR'," says Pavel.

12/ The first of the newly formed 'Storm Z' convict troops arrived in the Donetsk region at the end of February and were housed in the basement of a former cafe. The "most resilient" were sorted into a separate detachment known as "the blacks" to carry out night missions.

13/ They were assisted by Mikhail Luchin, AKA the Russian Telegram blogger "Misha in Donbass", a volunteer from Moscow who died in July 2023. He became involuntarily famous after Ukrainian hackers used the money he raised for drones for the Russian army to order dildos for him.

14/ Pavel says: “It wasn’t very clear who he was, he didn’t even seem to be a military man. But he was the only one who tried to do something for us, getting equipment. He said it straight out: “I will try to get the best for you.” And he always answered and helped our parents."

15/ "Our parents could not find us either through the Ministry of Defence or through the colony, but found us only through Misha absolutely by accident."

16/ Although the "blacks" – dressed all in black, to go along with their name – were given an unusual degree of operational freedom, they experienced many of the same problems of poor equipment and operational intelligence as the rest of the Russian military.

17/ "They gave me an automatic rifle and 2-3 ammunition clips," Pavel recalls. "When we asked why there were so few [clips], the answer was: you’ll find it there yourself. What do you mean we'll find it? What if there is a mine there or explosives are hidden inside the store?"

18/ My comrade tells me: it seems like we are being sent into a meat grinder. I say: don’t sweat it, now we’ll go out and sort it out on the spot."

They were unable to complete their first mission because the intelligence on their target turned out to be completely wrong.

19/ "We were told that there were “two Ukrainians” there, but the fact that there was a tank rolling around and shooting, a mortar working, two machine gunners sitting there, attacking us like chickens... For them, none of this happened."

20/ "So we almost immediately began to understand that we were simply fucked."

Pavel was sent to fight in Mariinka in April, but had his leg blown off by a mine during an assault on a Ukrainian position. He was then abandoned by his comrade when he called for help. He recalls:

21/ "I fell, twisted around in pain for about 30 seconds, and, in order not to die right there, decided to shoot off four clips at once.

22/ "I shout into the radio: “Code 300, code 300!” [wounded] My comrade in the crew yells: “Are you alive there?” I was like, “Yes, yes!” – “Can you go?” – "No".

23/ "I crawled to him, threw off all my equipment, threw away my Kalash and helmet, body armor, grenades, and lightened myself as much as possible. My comrade swore, chewed me out, and I crawled towards the exit.

24/ "I crawled under fire, didn’t notice anything – I just heard bang-bang, bang-bang and crawled. I didn’t care, I wanted to go home, I wanted to live."

He was eventually rescured by two other recruited convicts, Nemchinov (“Raccoon”) and Strauch (“German”):

25/ "While they were running after me, there was an arrival and the boys were immediately blown up. I heard their screams. I crawl past “Raccoon,” our platoon commander, and he’s like, “I’m all over the place... In short, you can’t help me, crawl on.”

26/ "I crawled to “German”: two of his legs were wounded, he could not move at all. He lay on his back in the bushes and screamed in pain. I climbed onto Nemchinov’s chest and took out his tourniquet. I started to tourniquet one of his legs, but the tourniquet broke.

27/ "I throw it away – I take out my own, but we didn’t have another spare one. I only tourniqueted one of his legs." Pavel himself survived and was evacuated.

28/ Nemchinov and Strauch both died where they fell. Their bodies were later spotted from the air by a Russian drone, but they were both officially recorded as 'missing', like so many of the other Russian dead.

29/ Because they had never received documentation confirming their service in Ukraine, the two men's relatives did not receive any compensation, nor any salaries for their service. Six months on, they are still trying, without success, to have the bodies returned for burial.

30/ The survivors were sent to the Svatove area but didn't want to go back to the fighting. "The boys were sent to the front line, they wandered into some house and sat there for several days. Because what followed was a complete meat grinder, they didn’t want to go there."

31/ Some of them recorded videos complaining about their situation. Within only six weeks of signing their contracts, the entire detachment of 22 "blacks" had been destroyed: 9 were killed, 4 are still missing, 8 were seriously injured and one was captured by the Ukrainians. /end

Source:
severreal.org/a/minoborony-z…