1/ MEMOIRS OF A MOBIK, PART 4: Mobilised Russian soldier 'Ukol' continues his recollections of working as a medical orderly on the front line. In this final part, he describes how he participated in the torture and execution of Ukrainian POWs before having a mental breakdown. ⬇️
2/ Part 1, covering his initial mobilisation and transportation to Ukraine, is here:
5/ Ukol says that his unit only took a few Ukrainian prisoners during its months of fighting over a village he calls "the Necropolis", as they routinely killed them instead. On one occasion he was called on to use his medical skills to keep one prisoner alive under torture.
6/ "There is a reason for this. The Kraken (a banned terrorist Nazi armed group under the wing of the GUR [Defence Intelligence of Ukraine], note) was fighting against us.
7/ "Once, as a medic, I was called in to interrogate one such prisoner. It was necessary to monitor his condition so that he would not go to another world during the interrogation, because at first he was a hero and refused to talk.
8/ "But a little later he softened up and shared some things. For example, that despite his emaciated appearance and trench beard, he was 21 years old. And, according to him, most of them were like that. Ideological, young and daring.
9/ "It was hard to fight them, they really enjoyed fighting and killing. Sick bastards.
– (Interviewer) Our brothers from Serbia, one of the special forces, had an emblem with the slogan "Terrorism is a disease, call a doctor."
10/ "- (Ukol) Well, so we acted like doctors. We didn't want to talk to those goats who were captured at all. They didn't spare us, and we didn't spare them either.
Once, by mistake, they captured a girl of about 20-22 years old. I think it was in the Necropolis itself.
11/ "Well, a close-range fight, you understand. She got separated from her comrades. Maybe things would have turned out differently in her attitude if she had been an ordinary Ukrainian soldier. But she ended up with a Kraken chevron, which she was excessively proud of.
12/ "Our stormtroopers were not in the mood for long walks to the rear. Well, you get the idea."
(Russian executions of Ukrainian POWs have been reported on many occasions; it appears to be a consistent policy.)
13/ Although he was a medic, Ukol says he frequently participated in attacks on the Ukrainians.
"After all, as a medic, you are called from position to position. And you can hang around there for a long time because of shelling or because of an order.
14/ "In such cases, you become a fighter. Because at some positions we sat five people at a time. And the medic who came is an additional rifle, and ammunition.
15/ "At one such position at the end of 2023, I was trusted to fire from a Shmel flamethrower [thermobaric rocket launcher] at the forest belt opposite, where the Ukies were sitting. Specifically, at the dugout in which they were hiding.
16/ "I was completely lucky – I hit from no less than a couple of hundred metres. I saw how the dugout was scattered, including by internal detonation.
17/ "After a while, the drone operator praised us on the radio - there were traces of several Ukie soldiers inside the ruins of the dugout.
18/ "In other cases, I have no reliable results about my shooting. Although we were in the Necropolis in the winter of 2022-2023 at grenade throwing range with the enemy."
19/ Ukol's service in the front line came to an end in the spring of 2024, when he transferred to a rear echelon position. By this time, he says, the members of his brigade "were transferred entirely to contract service."
20/ "The mobilised were spent, the survivors were transferred to other parts of our unit. I was thrown into the mobilised regiment XXXX. There I worked in my specialty until the end of spring."
21/ Ukol suffered a psychological breakdown under the constant stress:
"It all ended with me "catching a psycho." They pulled out a wounded man for me, of moderate severity."
22/ "I treated his wound, but obsessively looked for hidden injuries, continued and continued to examine him, crawling on my knees and muttering under my breath. That's what they told me later.
23/ "I was removed from the combat unit, given a rest period in the regiment's medical battalion, injected with sedatives and vitamins.
After that, I transferred to rear work."
24/ Ukol says that serving at the rear has given him a different perspective on the war:
"It hasn't become easier for me in the rear. It is a mistaken opinion of civilians that in the rear there is relaxation and a free ride. No!"
25/ "No, when you work in the rear, you see how reinforcements are trained, how the front and rear are supplied, and you also watch how decision makers THINK. And that's when you understand why there is such a meat grinder on the front.
26/ "In the rear, you understand more deeply how war really works. And rear work is no less tiring with its monotony and its madness – an attempt to keep up with the standards of service in civilian life as in the deployment point,…
27/ …because of endless checks, because of the increasingly sophisticated nitpicking of the military police and the State Automobile Inspectorate on the roads.
27/ "I live with the thought that the ongoing negotiations will lead to the end of the conflict and our demobilisation. I'll hold out for another six months. Then... Then I don't know what to do. I'm so tired of everything, I want a reasonable, peaceful life so much." /end
1/ After nearly three years of war, the few survivors of Russia's September 2022 mobilisation have had enough. A bitter commentary by four 2022-vintage 'mobiks' highlights the war-weariness and frustration being felt. ⬇️
2/ 'Vokzhak' writes:
"THINGS WE CAN'T TALK ABOUT
This is a difficult topic and not pleasant for everyone, but here I will try to express as correctly as possible the consolidated opinion of my friends, those guys who were called up with me in '22 and who are still alive."
3/ [Mobik 1]: "We are not newbies anymore. We are burned out as hell. I am going to the combat mission and I don't care what will happen there, whether they will kill me or not, whether we will complete the task...
1/ Russia is bogged down in its Sumy pocket in north-eastern Ukraine, a prominent Russian warblogger admits. The 'Two Majors' channel reports that the situation is difficult due to Ukraine's large-scale drone attacks and calls out commanders for lying. ⬇️
2/ 'Two Majors' writes:
"Sumy direction. Not everything is so easy. Overview:"
3/ "While the official and departmental channels are forced to write on the command of senior chiefs that ‘creation of a security strip’ and the notorious ‘buffer zone’ is underway, the situation remains difficult.
1/ Since 2000, the Russian constitution's free speech provisions – its equivalent of the First Amendment – have been systematically nullified by Vladimir Putin with the aid of tame courts and a puppet parliament. It offers a potential road map for other would-be autocrats. ⬇️
2/ In the late 1990s, it was still possible for Russians to exercise a high degree of free speech. Putin – then only prime minister – was one of many figures to be satirised on the show 'Kukly' ('Puppets'). Now, such commentary would result in many years behind bars.
3/ The current Russian constitution was enacted in December 1993. It contains what are on paper strong guarantees of free speech and the media (but with important limitations in paragraphs 2 and 4, which Putin has exploited to the full):
1/ Russian soldiers with HIV and hepatatis are pleading to be released from military service and allowed to undergo treatment. Instead, many are being sent back to the front lines without any treatment, and some are being sent into suicidal assaults as an apparent punishment. ⬇️
2/ The Russian army is experiencing an ongoing epidemic of HIV, hepatatis C and other infectious diseases, largely due to a lack of screening and treatment, and a widespread lack of sterile medical supplies.
3/ Soldiers can apply for early dismissal from military service if a military-medical commission (VVK) gives them a category B fitness rating due to a wound or if they have a 'socially significant disease' (tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis B and C).
1/ South Korean workers who have been deported from the US have spoken of enduring squalid conditions in ICE custody, including being chained, handcuffed and zip-tied, being made to lick up water rather than drink it, and having to menstruate and use the toilet in public. ⬇️
2/ The South Korean daily newspaper Hankoryeh has published accounts from the workers deported last week for alleged visa violations while they were working on installing equipment in a new factory in Georgia. The translation below highlights some of what they have said.
3/ The workers' "waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies."
1/ MEMOIRS OF A MOBIK, PART 3: 'Ukol', a Russian soldier who is a rare survivor of the original September 2022 mobilisation, continues his recollections of his service on the front lines in Ukraine. He speaks of his experiences as a medical orderly under Ukrainian bombardment. ⬇️
2/ Part 1, covering his initial mobilisation and transportation to Ukraine, is here: