1/ Despite searing temperatures of up to 40°C (104°F), Russian fighter pilots in Ukraine and southern Russia are reportedly being issued with only 1 litre (36 oz) of water per day. In between sorties, they are said to be driving around nearby villages begging for water. ⬇️
2/ The Fighterbomber Telegram channel has published a despairing post complaining about a chronic shortage of drinking water for Russian pilots stationed at forward airfields. The author writes:
3/ "The guys have been fighting from forward airfields for several months and for several months everything has been bad with food.
You can say it doesn't exist.
If with dry rations everything was solved after a time, then with water everything turned out to be difficult.
4/ "It turns out that pilots are not allowed water.
None.
5/ "After the intervention of those who don't give a fuck, within a day the issue with rations was essentially resolved, and the water issue was partially resolved. A water standard has appeared.
One
Litre
Of
Water
Per day
Per person.
6/ "When not flying combat missions, pilots are forced to drive around the surrounding villages in search of water."
7/ It should be noted that the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is about 3.7 litres (130 oz) of fluids a day. In very hot temperatures, more water is likely to be needed or dehydration will result.
8/ The channel appeals to Russian bottled water manufacturers to "deliver water to the nearest military airfield. Preliminary, this is Voronezh, Rostov, and any military airfield in Crimea. Wherever is more convenient for you.
9/ Water in one-and-a-half-litre bottles is more convenient, but we'll take any."
The south of Ukraine and Russia are currently experiencing very high temperatures and severe drought. The Kakhovka dam's destruction in June 2023 has cut off most of the water supply to Crimea.
10/ Ukrainian attacks on Russian supply chains are also likely to be a factor in causing shortages of food and water. Russian troops have recently filmed themselves having to drink nettle soup for lack of food supplies. /end
1/ Russian soldiers fighting near Pokrovsk say they are eating bark to avoid starvation, while they face systematic extortion, embezzlement, and violence from their commanders, who send numerous men to their deaths and routinely execute others who are deemed inconvenient. ⬇️
2/ Vladimir Valerievich Dulyaninov, serving in the 6th Guards Tank Regiment (military unit 93992), has recorded a series of videos which his aunt has released in an apparent effort to pressure the Russian authorities to take action against the regiment's commanders.
3/ Dulyaninov has given a detailed account of the abuses in his unit, which reflect many similar accounts across the Russian army. He says that he is the commander of an assault platoon, but "I've lost many soldiers due to the reckless commanders, the rush and all that."
1/ The occupied Donbas is a garbage-filled, dysfunctional, and corrupt region infested by packs of man-eating dogs, according to a Russian warblogger. In a remarkable display of cognitive dissonance, she blames Ukraine and says that Russia is only in nominal control. ⬇️
2/ Journalist and warblogger Anastasia Kashevarova, who has frequently campaigned to improve the situation of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, has posted a long denunciation of the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, partly under Russian control since 2014.
3/ She asks: "Has Russia entered Donbas?"
"Russia has been repeatedly accused of occupying Donbas and Crimea, but let's finally figure out whether Russia is actually in Donbas. I, like the people of Donbas, are still waiting for Russia to finally enter and rule.
1/ A Russian soldier with a mental disability says that he was imprisoned in an open-air pit for 54 days to force him to join a stormtrooper squad. His experience highlights the Russian army's increasing use of men with disabling mental conditions as frontline troops. ⬇️
2/ Oleg Gennadievich Kalmykov of the 15th Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 31134) has recorded a video recounting how he was imprisoned for nearly two months in a zindan, a pit in the ground sealed with iron bars but otherwise open to the elements.
3/ Kalmykov says that his previous and current regiments are trying to override a diagnosis by military psychologists that he should be employed only in the rear area with no access to weapons, because he has an emotionally unstable personality disorder:
1/ A wounded Russian soldier was buried up to his neck in a so-called "tight pit" to 'remotivate' him to go on an assault. In a video, the man names his commanders, whom he says are running an extortion racket, and appeals for help from the military authorities. ⬇️
2/ The man complains: "They buried me in a pit for refusing to go and die on a combat mission, for a simple, stupid task where I could have died, they put me in a pit."
His cap reads: "To be a soldier means to live forever."
3/ The man is reported to be from the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 108th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment (military unit 42091). He says that he had to refuse to go on a combat mission because of fragmentation injuries to his back.
1/ Russian soldiers are once again finding themselves being targeted by the hated military police for petty offences, including "driving with dirty tires" in the middle of the muddy season in Ukraine. "Are we fighting or just wanking?" asks one aggrieved soldier-blogger. ⬇️
2/ The military police have been the subject of complaints for years due to their rampant corruption, violent treatment of soldiers and generally obstructive attitudes.
3/ A fresh wave of shakedowns has been reported from the Russian rear areas in Ukraine, with soldiers being detained and sent to their likely deaths in stormtrooper squads as punishment for petty offences. 'Vault No. 8', a serving soldier and warblogger, reports:
1/ Eleven Dutch parties across the political spectrum from socialist to conservative have issued a joint appeal to a provincial government to build a memorial to Black American soldiers who died in World War II, to replace one removed from the Netherlands American Cemetery. ⬇️
2/ The Dutch newspaper NRC reported earlier that a memorial to African-American soldiers who had fought to liberate the Netherlands and built the cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg, had been removed following a complaint by the Heritage Foundation.
3/ The removal was strongly criticised by local historians, researchers and politicians, who had campaigned for years for the US government to publicly recognise the contribution of black Americans to the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944-45.