1/ An interesting translation insight into what Russians call anti-drone protection:
🔺 What some Westerners call a "cope cage", used on military or civilian equipment to protect it from FPV drones, is referred to by Russian sources as a 'mangal' (barbecue).
2/ 🔺 What Westerners have dubbed a "turtle tank" – a homemade shelter that covers a tank, infantry fighting vehicle or armoured personnel carrier entirely – is referred to by Russians as a 'tsar-mangal' (a king barbecue).
3/ While this presumably refers to the grill-like appearance of many of these contraptions, it's probably also quite an appropriate description of what happens to the crews when the extra protection traps them inside the vehicles if they get hit...
1/ THE SINKING OF MOSKVA, PART 3: After being struck by Ukrainian missiles on 13 April, the Russian missile cruiser Moskva was abandoned and left to drift burning overnight. This thread tells the story of the ship's final hours, and what happened next. ⬇️
2/ These threads are based on a newly published dossier compiled by Dmitry Shkrebets, the father of a conscript sailor who died in the attack on Moskva. For part 1, describing events leading up to the missile strikes, see the thread below.
1/ THE SINKING OF MOSKVA, PART 2: The sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship on 13-14 April 2022 was the greatest loss for the Russian Navy since World War II. The father of one of the dead sailors has published an inside account of how it happened. ⬇️
2/ This thread describes Dmitry Shkrebets' account of how the crew tried to save Moskva after two Ukrainian Neptune missiles struck her starboard side at 14:20 on 13 April.
3/ The chaos and confusion aboard the ship after the missiles struck is captured in audio released by Ukraine in May 2022. A Moskva crewman can be heard radioing for help with emergency sirens blaring. "[This is] Moskva", he says, "two hull breaches below [sic] the waterline."
1/ A detailed inside account of the sinking of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva has been published. It describes how the ship was overwhelmed with fire and smoke, safety systems failed, interior structures collapsed and crewmen jumped out through portholes to save themselves.⬇️
2/ On the afternoon of 13 April 2022, Moskva was struck and set on fire by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles. A day later, the ship sank. Russian authorities said that 396 crew members had been evacuated, with one sailor killed and 27 missing.
3/ Dmitry Shkrebets, the father of one of the missing sailors, has compiled an extremely detailed dossier of the events that led up to the sinking and how the sinking itself took place. It includes survivors' first-hand accounts. The ship was in a very poor condition at the time.
1/ A wounded Russian soldier has recorded a nude video complaining that his commanders are "freaks who maim and kill our soldiers". He says that they use men as 'expendable material', inflicting huge casualties on their own side, and that medical facilities are terrible. ⬇️
2/ The unnamed soldier is currently a member of an assault battalion in the 1307th Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 77860), which he says is a "bloody regiment" used as a penal unit for 'undesirables'.
3/ He joined the Russian army in March 2022 as a member of the BARS (Combat Army Reserve) and fought near Kharkiv in the early days of the war, receiving an award for bravery. Casualties were extremely high, with only 32 out of 500 men surviving. He was wounded himself.
1/ The career of a Russian UAV operator, as described by a Russian warblogger:
"A young man of about 25 years old is going to sign a contract, hoping to become a UAV operator. He has an engineering education and a couple of years of work experience after graduating."
2/ "He is shoved into assaults, without any discussion. They ignore his request to enroll him as a drone operator, they ignore his higher education. The training before the first battle is less than 14 days.
3/ "The guy ends up storming a populated area, where he receives a moderately severe wound to the leg (dropped from a copter).
A month later, slightly healed, he is returned to the regiment, where he is listened to and sent to a newly formed UAV platoon.
1/ A leaked order suggests that the Russian army is concerned about how many of its soldiers will leave once mobilisation and stop-loss orders have ended. It follows concerns expressed by Russian warbloggers that much of the army may quit after a ceasefire or peace deal. ⬇️
2/ The order, shown above, instructs commanders to "organise and conduct a survey of military personnel of all categories about their intentions (desires) to continue military service under contract after completing their military service, taking into account the proposed…
3/ …increase in salary (from 100 thousand rubles and above) and the expansion of the list of social guarantees provided (free travel to and from, basic leave for military personnel and their family members, increased monetary compensation for the rental of housing, etc.)."