Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Mobilised Russian soldiers serving on temporary contracts are being threatened en masse with execution if they do not sign contracts, making them permanent soldiers and ineligible for post-war demobilisation. Russian warbloggers are forcefully condemning this practice. ⬇️

2/ Russia began a partial mobilisation of reservists from September 2022 to raise 300,000 troops in the aftermath of Ukraine routing its forces in the Kharkiv region. Their time-limited service has been extended indefinitely by order of Vladimir Putin.

3/ Since then, Russia has chosen to rely more on volunteers who have signed contracts to become permanent professional ('contract') soldiers. Contract soldiers are paid less than the mobilised and are not subject to demobilisation, when it eventually happens.

4/ Reports in December 2024 indicated that Russian commanders had unofficially been ordered to transfer mobilised soldiers onto permanent contracts. This has now become systematic, and is carried out with considerable brutality, causing many complaints.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1865432377264103606

5/ Russian warblogger, journalist, and campaigner Anastasia Kashevarova writes:

"One of the most pressing issues currently troubling participants in the Special Military Operation is the forced signing of contracts by mobilised soldiers.

6/ "Neither I nor the soldiers understand why this is being done.

Perhaps it's a way to report the arrival of new contract soldiers.

7/ "Perhaps it's so that mobilised soldiers don't count on being discharged or rotated at the end of the Special Military Operation or during additional mobilisation activities, since their experience is already colossal, and they are needed in the army.

8/ "Perhaps it's to avoid highlighting the losses caused by incompetent commanders when they send them to combat zones foolishly and in an ill-considered way

9/ "[Many organisations] are inundated with complaints from mobilised soldiers and their families who are forced to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence. Commanders cajole and threaten. But everyone remains silent. They are afraid to speak up and address this issue...

10/ "Being afraid to stand up for your country's fighters is cowardice and betrayal. Not for deserters or swindlers, but truly for those who were called up and who, torn from their ordinary, monotonous lives, went to fulfill their duty.

11/ "I appeal to the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff:

You are now raking up the legacy of the collapse of the USSR. You are jailing corrupt officials, uncovering new machinations in the Russian Armed Forces and speaking openly about it.

12/ "But the honour of the uniform must be defended not only in the rear, but also on the front lines.

1. Please pay attention to the problem. Threats, assaults, and punishments are used to force mobilised soldiers to sign contracts.

13/ "Political officers and commanders do not explain to the soldiers why this is necessary. Their attitude towards people is disgusting. This must be corrected.

14/ "2. Allow mobilised soldiers the right to remain as mobilised soldiers – they deserve it. Many have been serving for three years without vacations or rotations.

15/ "They, like career soldiers and many volunteer contract soldiers, did not receive multi-million rubles payments from their contracts because their homeland called them up. Despite the claim that they all go on leave, we wrestle them into leave through the prosecutor's office.

16/ "3. This attitude toward soldiers quickly spreads across the front. It lowers the army's morale and combat spirit. It sows resentment within the country through the families of those mobilised. It undermines trust in the country's leadership.

17/ "4. Everyone knows that people are needed at the front. Commanders complain that they need to fight, but there aren't enough men. Regions send everyone on contract for exorbitant sums.

18/ "Many are unfit to fight, which means they don't participate in rotations and are incapable of serving as a combat unit. The attitude of some commanders quickly becomes known.

19/ "All this, combined, reduces the number of needed volunteers at the front who could fight effectively but don't go due to the lack of organized work and discipline in the army.

20/ "Conclusion: The entire burden of military action falls once again on the shoulders of those who have been fighting since 2022 and earlier. On the shoulders of those who didn't receive multi-million ruble contract payments.

21/ "Those who ensured advancement at the very beginning, during the most difficult times. And you need to incentivize and reward these fighters—career soldiers, volunteers, mobilised soldiers, and contract soldiers.

22/ "And not give millions to those who can't even hold an automatic rifle, who show up at the training ground drunk or stoned. Real combat pay. Evacuate and provide real medical care.

23/ "Don't threaten [to send people on] assaults, but turn assault troops into an elite, as was done before. Don't force mobilised soldiers to sign contracts under threat, and fight internally against those who don't take care of their personnel.

24/ "If we correct all the mistakes that everyone knows about, then normal guys will go to the front."

25/ 'Two Majors' agrees, and provides more context:

"[A]bout a month or two ago, a new intensification of pressure began to coerce those mobilised back in 2022 into signing contracts."

26/ "Political officers and personnel officers weren't always able to find the right words, and, frankly, they threatened to transfer people to the hottest spots. Not all of these threats were empty.

27/ "The issue isn't a single evil commander, but rather statistics and strange objectives. In fact, high-ranking officials periodically report that the number of contract soldiers in the Army has increased recently, with people signing contracts.

28/ "But here we should immediately look at how many of these new contract soldiers (and this is the only number that appears in the pretty reports) previously served in these same units.

29/ "We need to see if anyone is engaging in statistical manipulation (quite legal) in their reports to the higher-ups. They're apparently trying to solve the problem of replenishing active units by intensifying the recruitment of civilian contract soldiers...

30/ "The situation bears no resemblance to the pre-mobilisation period of 2022, when frontline units sometimes had as few as 30 percent of their personnel.

31/ "The military units in which our comrades served at the time, exhausted and bled dry in battle, then noted with immense relief and gratitude the arrival of highly motivated mobilised soldiers, who immediately joined the fighting units on the front line and tore the enemy…

32/ …apart no worse than career soldiers. The enemy's manpower situation is now much worse, but we, too, are unable to conduct offensive operations in all areas of combat contact, dismantling the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defenses. Three years have passed.

33/ "The expectations and promises with which the powers that be accompanied the mobilised soldiers to the front have somehow been lost, and now the taboo topic is sparsely characterized by the phrase, "Well, they're highly skilled professionals now!"

34/ "That is, it's implied that there's no way to let them go; there's no one to replace the current professionals.

35/ "Rumors about a new “partial mobilisation” under the guise of “rotation” or other verbal forms are constantly circulating, swirling around for months, acquiring bizarre speculations within themselves, but only a few people in the country will make such a decision.

36/ "Insider information is unlikely here, and the mobilisation system is constantly being improved after the mess of 2022 ...

At present, public discussion on this topic is hardly possible: it is wartime.

37/ "But on the other hand, the moral and psychological state of those who have been mobilised (those who have not yet signed a contract) is an integral part of combat readiness, no matter how you look at it.

38/ "And it is very difficult to explain something about social justice to a man in a trench if, for some reason, his drone and equipment are again [provided by] humanitarian workers, his wife and children are at home, while another man in our great country simply goes to work…

39/ …and carefully studies the content of television programmes at home in the evenings." /end

Sources:
🔹 t.me/akashevarova/8…
🔹 t.me/dva_majors/828…