1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin warns that Russia's recent tactical successes around Pokrovsk and elsewhere are likely to have little effect on the overall trajectory of the war in Ukraine, unless Russia is willing to commit fully to the total defeat and dismemberment of Ukraine. ⬇️ 2/ Girkin has issued a fresh letter from a B̵i̵r̵m̵i̵n̵g̵h̵a̵m̵ Kirovo-Chepetsk jail and (somehow, probably by text messages) has given an interview to the Russian news outlet RTVI, giving his current assessment of the state of the war.

1/ Russian soldiers fighting near Pokrovsk say they are eating bark to avoid starvation, while they face systematic extortion, embezzlement, and violence from their commanders, who send numerous men to their deaths and routinely execute others who are deemed inconvenient. ⬇️ 2/ Vladimir Valerievich Dulyaninov, serving in the 6th Guards Tank Regiment (military unit 93992), has recorded a series of videos which his aunt has released in an apparent effort to pressure the Russian authorities to take action against the regiment's commanders.

1/ The occupied Donbas is a garbage-filled, dysfunctional, and corrupt region infested by packs of man-eating dogs, according to a Russian warblogger. In a remarkable display of cognitive dissonance, she blames Ukraine and says that Russia is only in nominal control. ⬇️ 2/ Journalist and warblogger Anastasia Kashevarova, who has frequently campaigned to improve the situation of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, has posted a long denunciation of the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, partly under Russian control since 2014.

1/ A Russian soldier with a mental disability says that he was imprisoned in an open-air pit for 54 days to force him to join a stormtrooper squad. His experience highlights the Russian army's increasing use of men with disabling mental conditions as frontline troops. ⬇️ 2/ Oleg Gennadievich Kalmykov of the 15th Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 31134) has recorded a video recounting how he was imprisoned for nearly two months in a zindan, a pit in the ground sealed with iron bars but otherwise open to the elements.

1/ A wounded Russian soldier was buried up to his neck in a so-called "tight pit" to 'remotivate' him to go on an assault. In a video, the man names his commanders, whom he says are running an extortion racket, and appeals for help from the military authorities. ⬇️ 2/ The man complains: "They buried me in a pit for refusing to go and die on a combat mission, for a simple, stupid task where I could have died, they put me in a pit."

His cap reads: "To be a soldier means to live forever."

1/ Russian soldiers are once again finding themselves being targeted by the hated military police for petty offences, including "driving with dirty tires" in the middle of the muddy season in Ukraine. "Are we fighting or just wanking?" asks one aggrieved soldier-blogger. ⬇️ 2/ The military police have been the subject of complaints for years due to their rampant corruption, violent treatment of soldiers and generally obstructive attitudes.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1971866880664392138

1/ Eleven Dutch parties across the political spectrum from socialist to conservative have issued a joint appeal to a provincial government to build a memorial to Black American soldiers who died in World War II, to replace one removed from the Netherlands American Cemetery. ⬇️ 2/ The Dutch newspaper NRC reported earlier that a memorial to African-American soldiers who had fought to liberate the Netherlands and built the cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg, had been removed following a complaint by the Heritage Foundation.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1987450443643986224

1/ Shooting down drones on the battlefield requires a wide variety of weapons, used in a layered defence, according to a commentary by Russian soldier and warblogger 'Vault 8'. The lessons he suggests likely apply to both sides in the current war. ⬇️

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1986632117980115433

2/ 'Vault 8' has produced "a brief analysis of the use of various weapons against enemy [Ukrainian] drones by our anti-aircraft gunners":

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️ 2/ The Dutch newspaper reports that two memorial panels installed at the NAC were removed some time earlier this year. They commemorated African-American soldiers who helped liberate Europe from German occupation during World War II.

1/ A Russian soldier fighting near Pokrovsk says that the area is a scene of carnage, with dead Russians lying everywhere. Soldiers' families are being sent death notices even before the men go into assaults. Only four out of his group of 120 men survived one assault. ⬇️ 2/ A Russian soldier from Orenburg with the call sign 'Elephant', fighting with the 5th Separate Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade (military unit 41698), has given a vivid account of his experiences fighting near Krasnohorivka and Pokrovsk, and how he was sent to Ukraine.

1/ The Russian Minister of Defence, Andrey Belousov, is reported to have ordered a crackdown on corruption in the Russian armed forces. In particular, the widespread practices by commanders of extortion and murder ("zeroing out") are coming under scrutiny. ⬇️ 2/ According to a private post to subscribers of the Razvedchik Telegram channel:

"Belousov instructed [Chief of the General Staff] Gerasimov to purge the army of banditry among commanders this winter, a high-ranking military official at the Ministry of Defence reported."

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.

1/ Russian soldiers are being handcuffed to each other, pepper-sprayed, and beaten to force them to go to the front lines. A soldier says that ex-POWs and badly wounded men on crutches are being forced to fight. "They're just throwing us in for meat," he says. ⬇️ 2/ Speaking in a video recorded in the back of a Russian army truck, a soldier from the 114th Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 24776) has recorded an appeal for help. He speaks of the violence being used against the men, and shows how he is handcuffed to a comrade:

1/ Indians fighting in the Russian army have been killed en masse near Pokrovsk. A survivor says in a video that his friends, who included students studying in Russia, died only 10 days after signing a military contract and being sent to the front without any training. ⬇️ 2/ An Indian man tells how his friend, a student, signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence because he wanted to make money. He had previously been doing "a month of work digging dugouts", likely in the Russian rear or in a border region.

1/ THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION, DAY 14

69 years ago today, Soviet troops had deposed the pro-democracy government of Hungary and were wiping out every remaining pocket of armed resistance. But Hungarian revolutionaries were still fighting back desperately against overwhelming odds. 2/ As the Hungarian Revolution enters its second week, the Soviet Army has effectively neutralised the Hungarian Army and crushed much of the resistance to its invasion of Hungary. Hungarian revolutionary fighters and some soldiers continue to fight on in Budapest and elsewhere.

1/ Russian warbloggers are bitter and outraged that Serbia is selling ammunition to the EU to provide to Ukraine. One advocates that in response, "as a brotherly gesture, [we could] cut off their fucking gas valve". ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1985023827676483670

2/ 'Ramzai' complains:

"Serbia is ready to sell ammunition to the EU, even if it ends up in Ukraine. Because the warehouses are overflowing—Vučić

Vučić emphasized that Serbia is militarily neutral, but is ready to cooperate with European armies."

1/ THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION, DAY 13

69 years ago today, Hungary's dream of freedom and democracy was brutally crushed by 200,000 Soviet troops with over 1,000 tanks. Although Operation Whirlwind was meant to be over in three days, Hungary's revolutionaries fought on for a week. 2/ The Soviet forces already inside Hungary are organized into two armies. The Eighth Army is deployed around Debrecen in the east with six divisions. The 38th Guards Army, stationed around Székesfehérvár in the west, comprises another seven divisions.

1/ Russia is failing to keep up with Ukraine's drone development, according to a Russian warblogger. In a lengthy commentary, 'Voenkor Kotenok' asks: "Who is stealing Russia's victory on the battlefield in the Special Military Operation?" ⬇️ 2/ 'Voenkor Kotenok' blames a range of factors, including bureaucratic inertia, commanders' mismanagement of UAV specialists, a technological deficit, different approaches, and the staffing of some Russian UAV with "cronies" who want what they think are safer roles. He writes:

1/ A Russian marine says that his commander, whom he describes as an incompentent drunkard, ordered his unit to march 20 km and attack a Russian-held position, after which all but three of his men were killed. He's now considering a suicide mission to kill his commanders. ⬇️ 2/ The man describes himself as a former Wagner Group fighter now serving with the 61st Separate Marine Brigade (military unit 38643). He says that he was fighting with the 2nd assault company near the village of Malynivka, about 14 km east of Pokrovsk.

1/ This from @slantchev is exactly right. In Russia, there's a long tradition of petitioning the Tsar – petitions were called chelobitnye, literally 'forehead-beating documents', reflecting petitioners' ritual bowing of their foreheads to the ground before the Tsar.

https://twitter.com/slantchev/status/1985490412396773501

2/ Importantly, this wasn't about appealing to the state's agencies for help – it was about obtaining the direct intercession of the monarch to bypass the slowness, obtuseness, and corruption of the state.

1/ The vast number of Russian casualties sustained in the war in Ukraine will one day require a reckoning, warns a Russian warblogger. He laments that Russia missed the opportunity to conquer Ukraine in 2014 after the revolution which ousted the pro-Russian leadership. ⬇️ 2/ "Freeze, freeze, winds of the fields!
Don't disturb us in the mown rye...
In the morning, in the morning, I'll set out on my journey.
And you remember me, but do you hear, don't wait..."
['Freeze, Winds of the Field', by the Russian black metal band Temnozor]