1/ Injured Russian soldiers report that they are being sent straight back to fighting in Ukraine without any medical treatment or admission to hospitals. Their superiors are unsympathetic: "Fuck you and your fucking splinters! Don't fucking piss me off! I'll fucking kill you!"⬇️
2/ ASTRA reports on the experience of soldiers from several regiments based in the Nizhny Novgorod region. According to Alexander, a Storm V member who is receiving treatment for shrapnel wounds and blast injuries, commanders have issued an order banning sick leave.
3/ "On Friday, a guy from my company was discharged, I told him, go to the unit and find out. He arrived, and he was sent to the Luhansk region to go to the ribbon [the front line]. He’s not combat-ready."
4/ "Everyone’s ears are torn, there is shrapnel in their arms and legs, no one gets anything [treated]. People with fractures went [back to Ukraine]."
A leaked order dated 7 June 2024 shows instructions on how the 'special contingent' (Storm V) are to be treated:
5/ "[You are to] Prohibit the sending of personnel from the special contingent to points of permanent deployment, hospitals (with the exception of the front-line zone), as well as on sick leave."
6/ According to Alexander, although the order only names the 'special contingent', "now even ordinary contract soldiers are in this pile."
7/ "They even send you with plaster[ed limbs]. They say you will undergo rehabilitation in the [Luhansk People's Republic] What kind of rehabilitation can there be if there are constant [missile] arrivals there?"
8/ ASTRA has also published an audio recording provided by Alexander of a conversation between wounded men and a starshina (equivalent to a sergeant-major) representing the military command. The discussion highlights the tensions between the men and their commanders.
9/ The men complain that "They say we are nobody and there is no way to call us." One man complains, "I received a head wound, I have about 13 fragments in my head and body, in my hands. Here I am forbidden to go to the hospital, I am forbidden to go to the clinic ...
10/ I need treatment, because I am covered in fragments."
The conversation doesn't go well. In the end, the starshina accuses the man of alcoholism and declares: "Shut the fuck up! Fuck you and your fucking splinters! Don't fucking piss me off! I'll fucking kill you!" /end
1/ Russian military recruiters are now offering criminal suspects and accused a deal to avoid a trial by going to fight in Ukraine. It's the latest example of how Russia is tackling manpower shortages in the ongoing war by targeting a wider pool of potential recruits. ⬇️
2/ The Russian newspaper Kommersant reports that the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Customs Service and even bailiffs are involved in an effort to recruit for the army those suspected or accused of criminal offences.
3/ Physically healthy defendants in criminal cases aged 18 to 65 are promised a suspension and then the termination of the prosecution and the wiping of their criminal records when they have received a medal, the war is over, or they either die or are too injured to fight.
1/ More than 10,000 people have been charged with refusing to serve in the Russian armed forces since 2022, with nearly 8,600 sentences being passed. Cases of refusal are currently setting new records, with as many as 35 verdicts a day in April 2024. ⬇️
2/ Mediazona reports a huge increase in cases since September 2022, when military personnel were forbidden from resigning. They include 9,059 cases of unauthorised abandonment of a unit, 627 cases of failure to comply with an order, and 339 cases of desertion.
3/ Before September 2022, such cases were rare. They have now reached record highs. In May 2024 alone, there were 929 criminal cases of unauthorised abandonment of a unit, failure to comply with an order, and desertion. Up to 35 verdicts have been announced daily.
1/ Unfortunately this is an absolutely predictable consequence of the Kakhovka dam's destruction. Agriculture in Crimea and coastal Ukraine is effectively finished for the foreseeable future.
2/ This will have huge implications for the region. Its economy is largely based on agriculture (developed in Soviet times) - without the canals fed from the dam it's an arid near-desert. With no work and no water, much of the population will have to leave.
3/ The ecology developed over the last 70 years will largely disappear too. When the topsoil is dried out, it'll blow away in the dust storms that used to plague the region before it was irrigated by the canals. Even when (if) the dam is restored, it'll take decades to undo that.
1/ Major General Ivan Popov, recently arrested by Russia's FSB on charges of fraud, reportedly believes he was set up by his former superior General Valery Gerasimov after selling scrap metal to raise funds for his troops.
2/ According to a source cited by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel:
"After Shoigu was removed from the post of defense minister, Popov refused the option offered to him earlier to resign for health reasons.
3/ "Popov argued that he believed that Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, who was the main organizer of the harassment against Popov, would be the next to resign.
1/ A Russian soldier who says he was raped by African mercenaries in Ukraine asks for advice:
"Hello. I ask anonymously.
I am a soldier of a motorised rifle brigade, which is currently performing combat missions in the Kharkov region.
2/ "I thought for a long time whether to write about it at all, but finally decided to do it. In general, I don't know how to say it properly. I was raped. It happened a week ago. We were already in the [Special Military Operation] area. They sent Africans with us.
3/ "We realized right away that we couldn't trust these cocksuckers. They don't speak Russian, they always stay aloof, and it's not clear what they have in mind. One day it so happened that I was resting after my shift, and other guys from my unit went on a mission.
1/ Pressures from the war in Ukraine are reportedly contributing to a massive staff shortage in Russia's internal security forces. The Interior Ministry is said to be short of 152,000 staff. As a result, it is reportedly "paralysed" and unable to do its job of fighting crime. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that Interior Ministry head Vladimir Kolokoltsev recently told Russia's Federation Council (the Russian legislature's upper house) that his ministry was short of 152,000 personnel. This figure had increased by 150% in the last 6 months.
3/ This follows reports last year about tens of thousands of vacancies in the Ministry of the Interior (MVD), with many policemen and other security personnel quitting to find better prospects elsewhere. The situation appears to have got worse since then.