1/ Russian soldiers who complained yesterday about their commander brutally beating their comrades, extorting them, and stealing from the dead, have reportedly been sent on a potentially suicidal combat mission – likely as retaliation for complaining. ⬇️
2/ The wife of Alexander Valerievich Shirinsky, a squad commander in the 506th Motorised Rifle Regiment, says that along with at least three other men "he was also brutally beaten on the night of August 24-25, tied to a tree for the whole night, his arms and legs are…
3/ …blue from the ropes, his face is covered in abrasions, he cannot walk, he also already had a wound – shrapnel in the chest, but Lt Col Voskoboev still sent him on a combat mission with shrapnel in the chest.
4/ "Now all those who suffered from his torture have been sent on a combat mission, in fact, they are the main witnesses of these crimes, there are many more victims. Battalion commander Voskoboev abuses alcohol, he is very cruel, I am very worried about my husband."
5/ According to the human rights organisation , Shirinsky said that he was beaten by four people seeking to "exert moral and physical pressure" on him. The beaten soldiers had previously not been allowed to wash, shave, or perform personal hygiene.Gulagu.net
6/ His wife says that Shirinsky is now in a very bad condition, not only from his previous shrapnel wound, but from a series of new injuries inflicted during the beating. "His arm did not move after the injury, and after all these violent actions, he cannot walk at all."
7/ "He managed to report that his arms and legs were swollen, his head and face were swollen, and cut. He repeatedly told me in conversation that his command abuses alcohol and treats its subordinates like expendable material.
8/ Today they were all sent on a combat mission and I am worried about him." /end
1/ Ukraine's recent reversal of Russian gains in Kupyansk – celebrated here by President Zelenskyy – highlights months of false claims of victory by General Valery Gerasimov. Russian warbloggers have for months been warning that such claims are false. ⬇️
2/ The Russians have been fighting their way into Kupyansk since July 2025, making very slow (and now reportedly reversed) advances into the city from the north.
3/ This has been accompanied by a steady drumbeat of exaggerated claims from the Russian military, including to Putin's face. Kupyansk is a large-scale example of the Russian practice of "taking on credit", or faking successes for medals and bonuses.
1/ The deaths of Russian soldiers who are murdered by their own commanders for personal profit are reportedly covered up by a systemically corrupt military command and justice system, while the killer commanders themselves are protected and even promoted despite their crimes. ⬇️
2/ Radio Svoboda reports on the case of Alexey Grigoriev, a 50-year-old from Moscow with three children who was eager to join the war in Ukraine, according to his wife. Despite having a good job, he flew to Magadan in Siberia to get a big enlistment bonus from the region.
3/ He signed up on 6 July 2025, and reached Ukraine on 27 July. He died within only hours of arriving. On 4 September, his sister was told that he had died of natural causes from heart failure in Rostov and that his body was in a morgue in the city.
1/ Russian warbloggers are angry and frustrated that Ukraine has continued to attack 'shadow fleet' tankers in the Black Sea. They admit that Ukraine has not been deterred, and that the Russian Navy lacks the capability to prevent such attacks.
2/ Video of the latest attack, on the Gambian-flagged tanker Dashan, has been widely shared on Telegram. 'Military Informant' comments:
3/ "Like the previous tankers Kairos and Virat, which carried oil under the Gambian flag, Dashan is also included in the European register of vessels belonging to Russia's "shadow fleet."
1/ The Russian army's fetish for bureaucracy has reached new levels this year, according to a Russian soldier and warblogger. The quantity has tripled over the past year, but the system is geared towards generating false information, or "fantasy stories about armed conflict". ⬇️
2/ 'Vault No. 8' has previously written about the extreme quantities of paperwork that the Russian army requires its personnel to generate and process. As well as taking up huge amounts of officers' time, the output often does not reflect reality.
3/ A further problem is that the Russian army is still, in the year 2025, entirely paper-based, and does not make use of electronic data collection and processing; it all has to be dealt with manually. 'Vault No. 8' writes:
1/ Russian soldiers who fall out with their commanders – due to personality clashes, disagreements, or a refusal to pay bribes – are routinely sent to their deaths in stormtrooper squads. Few survive for long; the following account vividly describes the life of a stormtrooper. ⬇️
2/ 'Occupant's Life', written by a frontline Russian soldier, tells the story:
3/ "Before a soulless bot deletes me from the Telegram universe; before the last spark of life in local mobile networks fades; before my phone buried under a birch tree is flooded to death, I'll tell you about the amusing adventures of a fellow soldier with whom I'd developed…
1/ Injured Russian stormtroopers say they have to lie in their own blood, pus and feces while under armed guard in hospitals that are more like prisons. They get expensive, inedible food which they have to pay for themselves, and are sent back to fight before they are healed. ⬇️
2/ A Russian stormtrooper who has been seriously injured twice describes the grim conditions in the hospital where he has been sent. His account is consistent with accounts from other men of overcrowded, insanitary facilities for the war wounded.
3/ Such reports indicate a medical system which is under severe strain from the sheer number of wounded – likely hundreds a day – who need treatment. Many soldiers have taken advantage of hospitalisation to desert, which likely explains the armed guards.