1/ Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov recently boasted that 96% of injured Russian soldiers treated in hospitals were able to return to duty. However, Russian milbloggers point out that that is only because badly wounded men are usually left to die on the battlefield. ⬇️ 2/ The '5 mg KGV' Telegram channel highlights Belousov's fallacy in claiming a mere 0.5% mortality rate with the (very graphic) illustration of the case of a soldier who went 32 days without evacuation after having his leg blown off by a drone-dropped munition.

1/ Russian soldiers are having to sue military hospitals to prove that they were injured in combat, so that they can receive the compensation payments they were promised. It highlights how the Russian state's bureaucracy is continuing to harm its own soldiers. ⬇️ 2/ Radio Free Europe covers the stories of several Russian soldiers who went to war and were injured, but were refused the certificates they needed to claim compensation.

One of them, Igor, was among the first to be mobilised in late 2022.

1/ The two Russian tankers that broke apart yesterday in the Kerch Strait reportedly split along welds created when the ships were modified in a botched attempt to meet safety regulations. Numerous safety rules were being violated when the ships sank. ⬇️

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1868395883064074750

2/ More details have emerged of the specific design flaws that caused the tankers Volgoneft-219 and Volgoneft-239 to disintegrate in a severe storm east of Crimea. As previously reported, both ships were old (55 and 51 years respectively) and didn't meet maritime safety rules.

1/ The two oil tankers that have sunk in the Kerch Strait were specialised river-sea vessels that should not have been operating at all, according to Russian sources. They were supposed to have ceased operating at sea in 2008 under Russian and international regulations. ⬇️ 2/ The tankers Volgoneft-219 and Volgoneft-239 sank today in a severe storm near the Kerch Bridge, killing at least one person and spilling 4,500 tons of heavy fuel oil (mazut) into the sea. They were operated by the Samara-based company Volgotanker.

1/ Russia's worsening economic problems are causing Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers to abandon production of some medications, due to fixed prices making it unaffordable. The country is now reportedly short of 20 million units of saline solution, a vital medication. ⬇️ 2/ The Russian media is reporting shortages of saline solution in Moscow, St Petersburg and many other regions of Russia. It is unavailable in many pharmacies, doctors are rationing rapidly dwindling supplies, and patients reportedly face a two month wait for IV drips.

1/ The political officer of a Russian regiment was kidnapped and tortured by his own commanders after discovering that they were involved in drug smuggling and reselling humanitarian aid, fuel, and even weapons. The case illustrates rampant corruption in the Russian army. ⬇️ 2/ ASTRA reports on the case of the deputy commander for political affairs of the 109th Separate Rifle Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Kirill Demin, who began an investigation after his subordinates complained about drug-addicted soldiers who were incapable of fighting.

1/ The ongoing crisis of staffing at Russian Railways has led to the state-owned company issuing an urgent appeal to pensioners and railway veterans to return to fill vacancies left by the war in Ukraine. ⬇️ 3/ Many of Russian Railways' 740,000 staff are poorly paid and have quit to join the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, where salaries are far higher (even if life expectancy is a lot lower). This has left the company well below the number of employees that it needs.

1/ Russian milbloggers say that the army's ban on using personal vehicles at the front threatens "riots or the collapse of the front", while taxi drivers – on whom wounded Russian soldiers now depend for evacuation – are charging extortionate fares. ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1867267353471226175

2/ The 'DPR Infantry' Telegram channel publishes a despairing Telegram exchange with a soldier using the callsign 'Hispanic', about the impact of the vehicle ban:

– Fuck. We can no longer supply ammunition to our stormtroopers.

– This has happened everywhere now. Fuck.

1/ Russian soldiers fighting on the Dnipro islands in the Kherson regions say that their efforts are being undermined by a lack of training and usable boats, while their commanders are lying about the situation in order to curry favour with their superiors. ⬇️ 2/ An email sent to the Soldatskaya Pravda Telegram channel tells of the woes of Russia's troops on the Dnipro river:

"Hello. I would like to raise the issue of what commanders' efforts to curry favor with their superiors can lead to.

The story is as follows.

1/ A doctor nicknamed 'The Butcher' who was charged with causing the deaths of eight patients is now treating wounded Russian soldiers in Ukraine. They complain that he deliberately treats them sadistically without anaesthetics and often completely denies them medical care. ⬇️ 2/ The 'Romanov Light' Telegram channel tells the story of Evgeny Popov, a St Petersburg doctor who was arrested in 2022 after twenty of his patients fell ill from drinking a barium solution before being X-rayed. EIght died, with another 12 injured but surviving.

1/ Nearly five times more Russians died fighting in the Syrian civil war than officially acknowledged, according to a new analysis. Journalists have established the deaths of at least 543 men, the majority of whom were Wagner mercenary fighters. ⬇️ 2/ An investigation by the BBC Russian service, based on open sources including social media posts, leaked documents and war memorials, has found that at least 346 employees of the Wagner Group died in Syria during Russia's operations between 2015 and 2024.

1/ Due to an ongoing ban on the use of personally owned vehicles by Russian soldiers, wounded soldiers are now reportedly having to call taxis to be evacuated from the front line in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. ⬇️ 2/ The 'Unofficial Bezsonov' Telegram channel reports:

"Much has already been said about the ban on humanitarian and personal vehicles in the troops. I just spoke with an officer from the DPR. He said that a solution has been found."

1/ Russia's 810th Marine Brigade is reported to be suffering huge casualties as it attempts to recapture the Kursk region, with a thousand of its men reported missing in October 2024 alone. Commanders are being accused of 'murdering' their troops. ⬇️
2/ One relative says that "It's absolute hell there. Those who are stormtroopers, it's total crap. There are a shitload of dead bodies there, a lot. You can't even help [casualties] ‘cos it's either you or him. They just send them out like meat."

1/ Russian forces in Syria are reportedly cut off and surrounded in several locations. It's not clear how many are still in the country, but it's likely that they will need the assistance of the victorious rebels and Turkey to evacuate fully. ⬇️ 2/ According to the Rybar Telegram channel, "Kurdish formations began to block individual objects of the Russian Armed Forces in the Euphrates region [of eastern Syria]

1/ Many Russian commentators feel the loss of Syria deeply because it was a "kind of symbol of the glory of Russian weapons," according to a lament published by a prominent Russian war blogger. "It is not yet clear what will happen to this symbol," he adds gloomily. ⬇️ 2/ 'Two Majors' explains why there has been an outpouring of furious and despairing commentary from Russian sources about the fall of the Assad regime.

"Because many war bloggers, they say, wear shoulder straps. Or communicate with those who do. Or were there 'incognito'."

1/ Russia is estimated to have spent hundreds of billions of rubles on its intervention in Syria, which also cost the lives of hundreds of Russian troops. Now the entire investment is likely to be lost with the Assad regime's probable imminent fall. ⬇️

https://x.com/kjovano/status/1864908678022775180

2/ The independent Russian publication Agency News has compiled some estimates of the costs of Russia's nine-year intervention in Syria between 2013-2024. No official figures have been published apart from Putin stating the cost as 33 billion rubles ($570m then) in 2016.

1/ The Russian army is reported to have come up with a new way of saving costs: it is forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts, which means they do not have to be paid as much if they are not on the front line. ⬇️ 2/ Most Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are either volunteers or professional military personnel who have signed contracts, or are mobilised personnel who were involuntarily enlisted from September 2022 onwards.

1/ Sick and wounded Russian soldiers have been taken from the hospital where they were being treated for serious injuries, hepatitis, and cancer, and sent back to the fighting in Ukraine without their fitness being assessed. Some have threatened to shoot themselves. 2/ The men, many of whom are from the Russian-occupied Abkhazia region of Georgia, were sent to Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai for treatment for various diseases and injuries. They recorded an appeal on 4 December asking for their departure to the war zone to be halted.

1/ Russia is reportedly spending at least 10 billion rubles ($99 million) to build a massive defensive system in the Kursk region, having already spent 3 billion rubles ($29.7 million) to build defences that comprehensively failed to keep out the Ukrainians. ⬇️ 2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "the entire border area is being turned into one large fortified area."

"According to local residents, in the Kursk region the most profitable and popular job for men is labour on the construction of fortifications."

1/ A useful corrective thought from the Russian military analyst Alexey Sukonkin on the ineffectiveness of using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine:

"If we are talking about a single nuclear strike of 'tactical power', then we should understand that, … 2/ … according to the old Soviet combat regulations, its goal was to defeat (not destroy, but defeat, and these are slightly different categories for assessing the damage inflicted on the enemy), for example, a tank company on the march. That is, 10-14 tanks. No more.

1/ Russia's VT-40 'Judgment Day' FPV drones are reportedly blowing up on launch and killing their own operators. It's the latest in a series of problems that are being blamed on a manufacturer that appears to be more interested in quantity than quality. ⬇️ 2/ The 'Romanov Light' Telegram channel reports:

"In the last few months, when launching VT-40 Sudoplatov "Judgment Day" FPVs, there have been more frequent cases of warheads being initiated during drone launch. There are quite a few dead and wounded."