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ChrisO
Independent military history author and researcher. Author of 'Ron the War Hero', the true story of L. Ron Hubbard's military career (link below!).
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Aug 10 • 38 tweets • 8 min read
1/ This is a continuation of my earlier thread linked below, concerning a leaked archive of complaints made to the Russian military prosecutor's office concerning Russian soldiers' involvement in the Ukraine war.
2/ Soldiers sent to Ukraine found themselves facing severe pressure when they refused to continue participating in the war (see also my thread on this topic, linked below.)
Aug 10 • 35 tweets • 7 min read
1/ @the_ins_ru has obtained an archive of complaints made to the Russian military prosecutor's office, which provides some very interesting insights from various perspectives into the experiences of Russian soldiers in the Ukraine war. Here's a 🧵 highlighting some of them. 2/ The girlfriend of a Russian paratrooper, Anatoly Nikolaevich Taimanov, wrote that he had been reported killed in Hostomel near Kyiv on 9 March. He was supposedly burned to death. She and his parents were given a body to bury on 15 April. However, she doubted it was him. Image
Aug 9 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Russia's Saki Naval Air Station at Novofedorivka in occupied Crimea has today "gone on fire", as they say in Scotland. Everyone and his dog appears to be speculating on how it was done, so for a change I'm going to look for clues about what it wasn't.
2/ It apparently wasn't a Western system. A Ukrainian source has told the New York Times that "a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used". So that rules out HIMARS (which is out of range anyway) and other Western long-range missiles. nytimes.com/live/2022/08/0…
Aug 7 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
11. On Russian tanks and their weaknesses:

Aug 7 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD OF THREADS: This is a quick link to the various threads I've written on the war in Ukraine.
Aug 7 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
2. My threads on corruption in the Russian military:

Aug 7 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. My threads on the experiences of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine:

Aug 6 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
1/ The Italian journalist Cristiano Tinazzi @tincazzi, who's been reporting from Ukraine, has posted a long and informative eyewitness testimony of her experiences in Ukraine in response to @amnesty's controversial report on Ukrainian military tactics. English translation below. 2/ From @tincazzi:
In June I was in #Mykolaiv, in the south of the country. Every day the Russians bombarded the neighbourhood where I was with artillery, missiles and cluster bombs (one exploded 300 metres from me).
Aug 6 • 37 tweets • 9 min read
1/ How has the Russian army responded to the huge casualties it's suffered in Ukraine? For a bonus 🧵, I'll draw once more on @wartranslated's archive of translated phone calls by Russian soldiers, which have been intercepted and published by the Ukrainians. 2/ For the first thread in this series, I reviewed what Russian soldiers' accounts and phone calls say about the factors motivating ordinary Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine:
Aug 4 • 51 tweets • 13 min read
1/ What happens to Russian soldiers who refuse to continue fighting in Ukraine? In this fifth and penultimate 🧵 in a series, I'll look at the stories of soldiers who've quit, using intercepted calls and personal accounts translated by @wartranslated. 2/ For the first part, a look at the factors motivating ordinary Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine, see below:
Aug 4 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Ukraine's recent HIMARS attack on a Russian ammunition train seems to have been an unusually high-casualty event – reportedly 80 Russians killed and another 200 wounded. I hadn't really thought about this until @TrentTelenko made an important point. 2/ In a useful thread he posted yesterday, Trent pointed out the vulnerability of Russia's non-palletised approach to logistics and its dependency on manual labour, which makes loading and unloading far slower than in Western militaries.
Aug 2 • 50 tweets • 12 min read
1/ What do Russian soldiers think of their commanders in Ukraine? This fourth 🧵 in a series looks at soldiers' personal accounts and intercepted calls, as translated by @wartranslated, and what they say about their leaders' deficiencies and Russia's tactics in the Ukraine war. Image 2/ For the first part, a look at the factors motivating ordinary Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine, see below:
Aug 1 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Overnight news of a devastating Ukrainian HIMARS strike against a Russian ammunition train suggests to me that the Ukrainians have been rather clever in exploiting the limitations of the local rail network. 2/ The attack took place at Brylivka railway station, south-east of Kherson. Coincidentally, it's an area I remember from a visit many years ago. The whole area is a vast, flat, arid and frankly mononous farming region watered by irrigation canals.
Jul 31 • 46 tweets • 11 min read
1/ Why do Russian soldiers break on the Ukranian battlefield? This third 🧵 in a series looks at at how their personal experiences of war have prompted some Russian contract soldiers to refuse orders, resign from their contracts and try to go home. 2/ For the first part, a look at the factors motivating ordinary Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine, see below:
Jul 30 • 39 tweets • 14 min read
1/ Why do Russian soldiers quit fighting in Ukraine and go home? In this second 🧵 in a short series, I'll look at what translated Russian accounts say about some of the factors prompting soldiers to give up on Putin's war. 2/ For the first part, a look at what motivates ordinary Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine, see below:
Jul 29 • 40 tweets • 13 min read
1/ Why do Russian soldiers fight in Ukraine, why do they quit and what happens when they do quit? Intercepted Russian phone calls published by the Ukrainians and accounts from the soldiers themselves shed some interesting light on these key questions. First 🧵 of a short series. Image 2/ Let's start with some caveats. The Ukrainian authorities have released extracts from recorded phone calls by Russian soldiers, clearly for propaganda. Some Russians have also published personal accounts of their service. These are particularly interesting for being unfiltered.
Jul 28 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Russian commentator/bad guy Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin thinks it's a bad idea for the Russians and their Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) allies to try to break through the heavily fortified Ukrainian defences at Avdiivka outside Donetsk city. He's not wrong. Translation: /1 "Assault on Avdiivka. The battle for initiative has begun. So, Russian military thought has made another ingenious military decision. /2
Jul 27 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Russian commentator Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin has confirmed that the Antonivsky road and rail bridges near Kherson, attacked last night apparently by Ukrainian HIMARS, are now out of action. Translation follows: @RALee85 @wartranslated Finally! The first road bridge across the Dnieper was taken out of operation ... True, so far it's in Kherson, and not by our troops ... But never mind, "bad things begin". /1
Jul 25 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
An interesting snippet giving an insight into what it's like to be hit by a #HIMARS strike:

(R2): We came, we now live here with scouts, two days ago they had an arrival in their building. Some shit that you cannot hear arriving. It just whistles for two seconds, then bam-bam!/1 (R1): Maybe this silent Polish shit?

(R2): No, no, it’s some MLRS like Grad or Uragan, but it’s silent.

(R1): Maybe the fucking Hummers or Hammers?

(R2): Not Hummers, what are they called…

(translation by @mdmitri91)
/2
Jul 25 • 44 tweets • 11 min read
1/ The war in Ukraine has been a disaster in many regards, but the divisions and destruction inflicted upon the Orthodox Church have been particularly grievous. In this final 🧵, I'll look at the role that Orthodoxy has played in the Ukraine war. 2/ For the first part, on the Russian Orthodox Church's relationship with the Russian state, see:
Jul 24 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
Multiple videos shows thermite incendiaries falling on densely populated civilian areas of central Donetsk – a clear war crime, as such munitions are banned from usage against civilian targets. But this incident raises more questions than answers. /1 Thermite is a pyrotechnic mixture of metal powder and metal oxide. It burns at up to 2,200°C (4,000°F). It can't be smothered or be extinguished by water. It can melt through steel and causes horrendous injuries – 5g of burning thermite on the skin can incapacitate a person. /2