Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia's volunteer soldiers (known as kontraktniki) have evolved significantly since the start of the Ukraine war, with the quality of the soldiers steadily decreasing. A Russian commentary describes how the profile of the Russian contract soldier has changed over time. ⬇️

2/ The author of the 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel, one of the relatively few surviving mobilised soldiers from September 2022, writes of his experience of encountering contract soldiers over the course of 2024 to 2025:

3/ "My first personal encounter with them occurred in January-February 2024, when our regiment was deployed to a rear-area training ground as part of a rotation (for only 20 days, but that's not the point).

4/ "There, I interacted with new contract soldiers who had just started being sent to the regiment. I spoke with them in three places: in the soldiers' mess hall, in the wash line, and in the laundry line.

5/ "In January 2024, these were ordinary men aged 40-60, with a few young men (19-25) who weren't serving their mandatory military service. And almost every other man hadn't been in the army either.

6/ "For the most part, they were normal representatives of the working class (including those from rural areas), but in terms of information, they were like children.

7/ "They didn't learn about the realities of the Special Military Operation beforehand, either online or from the relatives of mobilised soldiers from their own communities. They believed the TV shows and signed contracts without reading the fine print.

8/ "The next stage of their acquaintance was August or September 2024. Then I went to the far rear, to a compact camp for prisoners from assault companies "B." I saw another type of contract soldier... A terrifying sight, to be honest.

9/ "Imagine pirates from modern artists' artwork: grey-haired, with long, overgrown hair, toothless, with looks ranging from hatred to mild insanity, [and] malnourished (underweight).

10/ "And a couple of contract soldiers from the regular army leading them—with normal muscles, neat haircuts, and the eyes of people who live their lives much more easily. An unforgettable contrast.

11/ "These were criminals, tired of serving long prison sentences (yet again), with serious crimes—murderers, robbers, drug dealers.

12/ "And then came the third phase of familiarisation with new contract soldiers, in January 2025. Once again, I was sent to the rear. And I saw a number of people in worse shape than the prisoners from the paragraph above. They were homeless and hardened alcoholics.

13/ "At that time, fighters from this very same replacement force were dying almost every week. Simply from the strain. They hadn't done physical work (with shovels) or carried heavy objects like body armor, machine guns, and ammunition in ages.

14/ "Then the regiment completed its offensive missions and went on the defensive. They stopped giving us so many replacements, and a reshuffling of the existing forces began.

15/ "Important: with the end of the long, bloody offensive, the constant threats of sending them on assault missions also ended. The number of people doing paperwork has significantly decreased, while document flow has increased two to three times.

16/ "People are now valued.🙂 After they stopped giving them out, and in the organizational frenzy, the rear and fire support were squeezed out a bit too much.

17/ "And then came the fourth stage of acquaintance with all the aforementioned examples of new contract soldiers who, after being wounded, are unfit for combat and are working in the rear.

18/ "Now we really have a pirate ship. Some of the men joke to themselves: "I used to be 'call sign Trap,' and now I'm 'Jack Boneless.'"😜 ("Mechanical Arm," "Steel Head," "Thomas Half Finger")." /end

Source:
t.me/vault8pro/53022