Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia's state-owned gas company, Transneft, has conscripted hundreds of its staff to fight against "European evil spirits" in Ukraine. However, despite the company's vast wealth, the fighters have been poorly trained and equipped, and have died in large numbers. ⬇️

2/ An investigation by Important Stories highlights the role that Transneft has played in recruiting men to fight in the BARS-20 'Grom' volunteer battalion, one of dozens formed by corporate or political sponsors as part of Russia's Special Combat Army Reserve (BARS).

3/ BARS was created in 2021 with the promise that "the Russian Army offers you a unique opportunity to realize your ambitions, show your skills... see the diverse, stunningly beautiful landscapes of our country." It was promoted as a reserve force with occasional exercises.

4/ The invasion of Ukraine came as a shock to many of the approximately 20,000 BARS personnel, who found that the few thousand extra rubles they were earning monthly for their membership now obligated them to go and fight in Ukraine.

5/ BARS units played a key role in the summer of 2022, prior to the September mobilisation, at a point when Russia faced severe manpower shortages due to its heavy losses earlier in the invasion. Hundreds of Rosneft staff have fought as part of BARS.

6/ However, they have had a difficult time in the war. Many are in their 40s and 50s and were given little choice about joining BARS in the first place. Rosneft was given a quota for how many employees were to be recruited.

7/ A relative of Alexei Saispayev, 55, who died in the war, says that he "worked at Transneft in security. They put out a call to Transneft to gather the people. And that was it – he had to get ready."

8/ Another Transneft employee who died in the war, 51-year-old Yuri Goncharov, was also told to go. His widow says: "When it was offered to him, he didn't refuse, he went.... I said, "Is there nothing to do?" He said, "No, this conversation is over..."

9/ The men were sent with little training and inadequate equipment. Photographs show them dressed in civilian clothes, looking like "fishermen and mushroom pickers with automatic weapons". They were outfitted by a supplier of office supplies and equipment, overalls, and tools.

10/ Saispayev was one of many soldiers who were dissatisfied with what they had received, as a relative recalls."He grumbled. And he swore. And he threatened to shoot everyone there... They were from Transneft... Transneft equipped them, not the Ministry of Defence."

11/ "It's raining outside and all that crap. But they weren’t given boots or anything... The rear guards went to them as expected – in boots... They didn’t freeze, nothing like that. And these [fighters] walked and got wet."

12/ According to former BARS-20 battalion commander Alexey Nalivaiko, the unit had to rely on supplies captured from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The unit received help from benefactors, but it was only barely useful, as a video recorded in April 2023 reveals.

13/ The wiring of one of the cars they provided burned out along the way and it had to be towed to the location where BARS-20 was based. The other car they delivered was a "beat-up old Isuzu with a big white Z on the rusty hood."

14/ By the summer of 2023, BARS-20 was involved in fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine. It lost more than 100 soldiers in a single engagement – 29 killed and 86 wounded. Many of the men died within only a few days or weeks of arriving on the front lines.

15/ BARS-20 commander Sergei Dedov recorded a video appealing to the governor of the Transbaikal region for help: "In recent days, during fierce and bloody battles, our detachment suffered serious and irreparable losses in personnel, weapons and special equipment."

16/ The unit was bombarded by the Russians' own artillery due to a lack of coordination. BARS-20 fighter Alexander Lyzhin recorded a conversation with another man using the call sign Zorkiy, in which they discussed a Russian artillery strike on their positions.

17/ LYZHIN: "Yesterday they bombed, bombed, bombed, bombed..."
ZORKIY: "From the fucking artillery."
LYZHIN: "And today it turned out to be our 30th battalion (laughs)..."

18/ ZORKIY: "The 30th was redeployed, the redeployment was of equipment. Ours, damn it! Ours, fuck you! Fuck your mouth! How not to swear, how not to smoke? I'm a non-smoker."
LYZHIN: "And thank God, we missed it all." /end

Sources:
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🔹 storage.googleapis.com/istories/stori…
вбкв.рф/news/2022-08-2…
zvko.ru/obraschenie-ko…