1/ Hundreds of Russians who have refused to fight for various reasons – age, sickness, mental health – are reported to have been taken from a military base where they were being held and flown to Kursk, where they will likely be used in efforts to repel Ukraine's incursion. ⬇️
2/ ASTRA reports that hundreds of 'refuseniks' have been held at Kamenka near St Petersburg, where the 138th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade is based. Relatives say that some are unfit to fight, one man is 70 years old and can barely walk, and another has only one eye.
3/ The existence of the Kamenka military detention facility does not seem to have been reported previously. It suggests that different regimes are in place in Russia and occupied Ukraine, where refuseniks have been tortured, beaten and starved.
4/ According to relatives, on 12 August "at about 6 pm they received a message from the men who were there that they had been suddenly called to line up, and then, without any explanation, they were put in KAMAZ trucks and taken to a military airfield under guard."
5/ Two groups, of around 300 people and 150 people respectively, were reportedly driven away from Kamenka. The latter group ended up at a military training ground 7 km from Kursk. "They took them, grabbed them like a parcel, put them in and took them away," the relatives say.
6/ The men's wives are afraid that the army "will throw them onto the front line like meat, because they are not registering anything, they are not saying anything, everything is quiet."
7/ One man who was undergoing psychiatric treatment after fighting in the war told his mother that the army was "now dressing them, giving them an assault rifle and most likely [sending] them into battle."
8/ She worries that "if God forbid he has an explosion in his head and shoots someone, who will be to blame for this?"
9/ The men were not told where they were going. "As Comrade Colonel said, the center [in Kamenka] is being disbanded, but he does not know where they are being taken," a source told Astra.
10/ Around 20 of the refuseniks are said to have escaped on the way. It's not clear what will happen to them. Another 10 men "flatly refused" to board the buses and are reportedly being threatened with being sent to a pre-trial detention centre.
11/ The husband of one woman called her and told her that he and his companions "were just given assault rifles, changed into uniforms and sent to an unknown location. He says that about 20 servicemen managed to escape. No one was really looking for them."
12/ Like many of the convict soldiers who were sent to Ukraine in 2023, it appears that the refuseniks have become 'ghost soldiers' (see the thread below for more on this phenomenon).
13/ A wife says: "We found out that they are still registered in the village of Kamenka, in this detention center for missing servicemen. It seems that no one is going to re-register them, and they are not going to assign them to any unit either.
14/ My husband says: "I'm just walking like meat now." And, he says, even if I fall ill here, you won't get anything, no payments, nothing. According to the documents, he is simply not there [on the front lines]."
15/ It's likely that Russia's abrupt use of these men indicates a severe shortage of reserves in the Kursk region. This appears to be forcing the Russian army to use whatever manpower it can find, no matter how unsuitable it may be. /end
1/ Water supplies have been cut off in parts of the Rostov region as firefighters struggle to deal with the ongoing fire at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery. Residents are incredulous at claims by the authorities that there's no problem with air quality. ⬇️
2/ Novoshakhtinsk is the location of the Rostov region's only oil refinery. It specialises in the production of fuel and heating oil, as well as marine and diesel fuel. The refinery is a key supplier to the Russian military, making it a very attractive target for Ukraine.
3/ Following the drone attack on 21 August, the water pressure to residents has been reduced in Novoshakhtinsk and cut off entirely in nearby Krasny Sulin to ensure that firefighters have enough water. Residents also report severe air pollution.
1/ A Russian soldier has described an ongoing campaign of murder and extortion in the 80th Guards Tank Regiment, in which a sadistic company commander and his accomplices are said to be systematically robbing, torturing, and killing the men under their command. ⬇️
2/ A soldier named Evgeny Alexandrovich has recorded a video message describing how company commander Dmitry Kemerov (‘Kemer’), his deputy Mikhail Dudukov (“Dudka”, pictured right), and a soldier with the call sign ‘Batrak' are systematically abusing the men under their command.
3/ Along with his video message, Evgeny also includes a recording of an apparently wounded man being beaten with his own crutch and a truncheon. "Run, dog, run. And what about you, I ask? You're completely useless. Huh? Come on! And you dented my car."
1/ More charges are reported to have been brought against a Russian colonel who is accused of extorting, robbing, beating, and murdering his men, including his own second-in-command. ⬇️
2/ Colonel Anton Necherda, of the 1428th Motorised Rifle Regiment, was arrested in the Kursk region of Russia in the spring of 2025 after years of complaints from soldiers and their relatives about criminal abuses in his unit.
3/ According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, he now faces several new charges of abuse of office. Earlier in August 2025, the 2nd Western District Military Court rejected an appeal by his defence to release him from pre-trial detention.
1/ Russia's periodic shutdowns of mobile Internet services are crippling its air defences, according to Russian warbloggers. Shutdowns frequently take place to hinder Ukrainian drone attacks, but are disrupting coordination of Russian air defence units. ⬇️
2/ Both Ukrainian and Russian drones have used mobile Internet services for navigation. To combat this, local Russian officials have ordered shutdowns during drone alerts, which has caused disruption for ordinary people, chaos for the economy, and hindrance to the air defences.
3/ Mobile Fire Groups (MOGs) are a key part of these defences, comprising tactical units equipped with portable air defence systems and tasked with providing rapid, flexible, and mobile air defense coverage, often deployed to protect specific areas.
1/ A Russian tank crewman in the Pokrovsk region says that things are not going well there. Only 2 of his unit's 16 tanks are operational, there aren't enough men to operate the rest, and the tankers at the front line are being expended as assault troops instead. ⬇️
2/ The unidentified man, who says he is in a tank unit somewhere near Pokrovsk, says: "Well, we have no one left to send, we have no fucking crews at all. Of the three fucking companies left there... well, we can put together a company."
3/ The shortage of personnel means that three-quarters of the unit's tanks have had to be left at Antratsyt in the Russian far rear, south of Luhansk city. The remaining quarter are at the front line in a plantation, but half of those don't work.
1/ Russia's privacy-violating Max app reportedly automatically installs itself on Samsung phones, Russian users are being offered money to give it five-star reviews on app stores, and the Russian government has ordered its installation on all new phones from 1 September 2025. ⬇️
2/ The Russian government is positioning Max as an authorised replacement for WhatsApp and Telegram, but investigators have found that the app systematically violates its users' privacy (see thread below).
3/ Max is currently relatively highly rated in official app stores (4.4 on Google Play Store, 4.5 on the Apple App Store). However this is being inflated by a bounty scheme on the QComment site paying up to 15.7 rubles ($0.19) per five-star rating.