Russia is sending mentally disabled soldiers to the front lines.
Video shows how incapacitated man lying in muddy ditch, stripped of uniform, "murmuring incoherently, clearly too mentally incapacitated to communicate or "move," — The Telegraph. 1/
Semyon Karmanov, 27, diagnosed in childhood with intellectual disability with significant behavioural disorders requiring care and treatment, classified as fit for military service and killed this autumn from head wound. 2/
Artyom Radaev, 22, disabled since childhood, sent to front by 4th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade and later found tied to tree as punishment for refusing to fight — mother hasn't heard from him since. 3/
Alexey Vachrushev, who spent life under psychiatric care at specialized school for developmental disabilities, was pressured by police into signing military contract despite being declared unfit — current whereabouts unknown. 4/
Oleg Volkov, 23, diagnosed with psychiatric disability as child, forced to sign military contract after stealing wine crate, then panicked on first day in Ukraine and hid in electrical transformer cabin where he was captured. 5/
Russian soldier from 88th Brigade in Chasiv Yar said newly mobilized recruits arrive and immediately, they are 200s [dead] — his unit suffered over 90% losses: "There were seventy, now there are six." 6/
Ukrainian official Anna: Russia will never run out of people, sacrificing one man per 10 metres advances them and puts pressure on us. It is an effective tactic in a society where there is no price to pay for sacrificing the poor. 7/
Ukraine's general staff estimates around 210,000 Russian casualties during summer offensive in Bakhmut region with only minimal territorial gains. 8X
Prof. Clarke of CSIS: The drone war has made ground movement difficult and armoured vehicles almost impossible to use safely.
The front line is now fluid, with scattered pockets of troops fighting vicious, close battles and relying on drone resupply that sometimes fails. 1/
Clarke: I don't think there'll be major ground movement until winter ends. Russians can't mount a strategic offensive, and Ukrainians can only hold their ground.
They're fighting well but exhausted, outnumbered, short on troops, and need rest to renew their units. 2/
Clarke: Gamechanger is a funny word. There're two respects — new and not new.
Shahed drones are cheap, $20,000–$50,000, mass-produced, now upgraded to jet engines. That's not new.
What’s conceptually new are little FPV drones — like aircraft, doing the same job. 3/
Putin lost his teeth in Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine.
Former Ukrainian Marine Shaun Pinner compared it with the farmhouse at Waterloo. Both places mauled the army of an imperial aggressor, CEPA.
"We fight for survival. Russia fights for optics.” 1/
Pinner compares Pokrovsk to Hougoumont farmhouse at Waterloo, where holding position bled Napoleon's forces and disrupted his plan despite appearing insignificant on map. 2/
Around 110,000 Russian troops concentrated toward Pokrovsk with daily losses peaking at 700-800.
Yet they cannot break through despite outnumbering Ukrainian forces 8-to-1 in sector. 3/
“If you don't listen to orders, refuse to do your job, I swear on my mother's life, I will personally shoot you. I'll report you as missing, and shoot every single one of you. I don't give a f*ck,” — The Times. 1/
Putin’s army brutally inflicts on its own troops in Ukraine. Number of murdered by their own superiors is increasing.
Verstka identified 101 Russian servicemen who murdered fellow soldiers or sent them on suicide missions as punishment for refusing bribes or orders. 2/
Video from May showed two Russian soldiers who refused combat mission forced to fight to death in pit, with off-camera voice saying: "Finish him off already, what the fuck are you waiting for? He's still breathing." 3/