Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Habitual alcoholics are reported to be bearing the brunt of increasingly drastic punishments in the Russian army, ranging from beatings to being sent to their deaths. The Ukraine war is said to have become an efficient way to dispose of alcoholics. ⬇️

https://x.com/i/status/1576465478469701633/video/1

2/ The 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel reports on the trend for commanders to send people "to their deaths because of drunken pranks", pointing out that in civilian life, "for light pranks, the maximum you get is correctional labour".

3/ Mobilisation, the channel points out, has scooped up thousands of alcoholics from Russia's civilian population. The country has one of the world's highest rates of alcohol consumption and has recorded more alcohol-related disorders than any other country.

4/ This was not taken into account during mobilisation. Russia's regions were set crude numerical quotas to fulfil, without taking into account the quality of the men being recruited. Men who were clearly unfit – including many with serious medical conditions – were mobilised.

5/ As the channel notes, "The Ministry of Defence itself allowed itself to lower the bar for selection based on health and social behavior. The military registration and enlistment offices themselves recruited alcoholics, paying them increasing allowances over time."

6/ No attempt was made to reform alcoholics after they joined the army: "The alcoholics start[ed] drinking and acting up, like before."

7/ "And instead of forming penal construction companies from them at each unit, where they will sober up and reform, they are simply disposed of in assaults to no avail. And then... They recruit new ones, because there are not enough people!"

8/ There's no doubt that alcohol has been responsible for many adverse incidents on the front lines. Many of those who have appeared in recent punishment videos have been disciplined for drunkenness while on duty.

9/ This man, for instance, was imprisoned in a cage for drunkenness and desertion.

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1840126174757867780

10/ Other forms of confinement, such as being tied to a tree or being thrown into an open-air pit in the ground, have also been widely recorded.

https://x.com/prestonstew_/status/1824794776723439804

11/ Beatings by commanders are also a common punishment for drunkenness.

https://x.com/Mylovanov/status/1788480578356146190

12/ Elsewhere, soldiers have shot each other after drunken arguments have escalated, and soldiers have been blamed for abandoning positions under fire after getting drunk.

https://x.com/PStyle0ne1/status/1824716567218659451

13/ The Russian army clearly has good reason to punish drunkenness. But why send alcoholics into assaults when they clearly have little effectiveness? Russian-style assaults, which both sides call "meat waves", have a low chance of success but a high chance of death or injury.

14/ Punishment is clearly part of the equation. Russian soldiers have been complaining for some time that they are being threatened with being "sent to storm" if they do not comply with orders. Officers appear to want to make their men more afraid of them than of the enemy.

15/ Murder by proxy is clearly another factor. Russian milbloggers have recently been complaining about commanders deliberately seeking to get disfavoured men killed by sending them on assaults. Some may see this as a convenient way of getting rid of alcoholics.

16/ A further consideration may be the incentives for Russian commanders. As the thread below discusses, they appear to be judged by their willingness to carry out attacks, regardless of the results, and have no incentive to preserve lives.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1833148147104612415

17/ Russian soldiers have complained that specialists – including UAV operators, doctors, nuclear missile troops and aircraft carrier sailors – have been sent into assaults because of acute shortages of troops, caused by high casualties. Alcoholics may simply be swept up in this.

18/ Alternatively, some of the more 'conscientious' commanders may seek to preserve the lives of their better troops for a little longer by deliberately sacrificing their least capable men so that they can claim to have complied with orders to go on the offensive. /end

Source:
t.me/vault8pro/51617