Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Soldiers from Russia's 1st Guards Tank Regiment were reportedly tricked into joining a Storm Z assault detachment. After suffering 80% losses near Kupiansk under the orders of a "drunken commander", they are said to be imprisoned with dozens of others under threat of death. ⬇️

2/ ASTRA reports that according to the men's relatives, they are serving with the 3rd tank battalion of the 1st Guards Tank Regiment. They were sent to Tyshkivka in the Luhansk region on 1 September with instructions to construct dugouts there.

3/ However, they found that instead of working on fortifications, they were instead put to work training in assault detachments. They took part in 10 days of assaults against Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk between 7–17 October.

4/ According to Ivan (pictured at the top of this thread), one of the men who was mobilised from a support company, 17 out of 21 men in his platoon died in the failed offensive. He says the commander was drunk.

5/ It's likely that this was the same commander, reportedly a Lt Col Chikhov, who was blamed for the deaths of 300 Russians in the same offensive (see thread below).

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1713482981321461867

6/ Relatives of the men say that the army ignored calls for reinforcements and artillery support. The survivors are reportedly being held in an abandoned house in the village of Sofiiivka and threatened with imprisonment, torture or death if they do not return to the front.

7/ In addition to the survivors from the Storm detachment, 36 others are said to be detained in Sofiiivka. Their relatives say "our men are not cowards, they were ready to carry out a combat task without sparing themselves, but not to die on the orders of a drunken commander."

8/ It's significant that in both this case and in the previously reported episode involving men from the 12th Guards Tank Regiment, tank crewmen are apparently being used as expendable infantry in frontal assaults.

9/ Both episodes suggest that while Russia evidently has enough people to man its tank units, it may not have enough tanks to put them in. This may be a sign of the impact of its huge losses of equipment over the past 18 months. /end

Source:
t.me/astrapress/407…