ChrisO_wiki

1/ The Russian Air Force's inability to protect its aircraft against Ukrainian drones is symptomatic of its neglected status within the Russian armed forces, according to a prominent milblogger linked to the air force. He says it is afflicted by "desperation and poverty". ⬇️ 

2/ The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which is believed to be run by a former Russian Air Force captain, comments that "the [Aerospace Forces] Commander-in-Chief could not do anything in the current situation" because of a chronic lack of resources.

3/ "The Aerospace Forces Commander-in-Chief cannot even get themselves normal "Pantsirs" [anti-aircraft missile systems] in the required quantity to protect combat airfields. Which are subordinate to them.

4/ "They are not the ones who allocate money for shelters. They do not have it. They did not fuck up the fences, they were not forced to fight from unfinished and unready airfields, they did not distribute all the personnel to the space marines.

5/ "Even the shitty tires and "Jedi swords" were introduced out of desperation, poverty and lack of NVGs, heat guns, machine guns, searchlights, nets, shelters, etc., etc.

They rule with what they have. With what they are given.

6/ "The Aerospace Forces command has no weight in the Ministry of Defence crowd. The last and probably the only Aerospace Forces commander-in-chief over the past twenty-five years who had weight and authority was Surovikin [who was dismissed by Putin in August 2023].

7/ "Of course, there are worthy commanders, but everyone needs them not in director's positions, but to sweat for the good of the Motherland in the troops. On concrete."

8/ The 'poverty' of the Russian Aerospace Forces has been visible for a while. Following the Ukrainian drone attacks, air force personnel were reportedly ordered to erect anti-drone protections at their own expense, for lack of official funding.
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1930167646525206929

9/ In March 2024, a Russian air force base made an urgent appeal for donations from the public after its last remaining forklift broke down under the weight of transporting bombs to aircraft. Individual pilots have also crowdfunded fireproof clothing. /end
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1904099403524125176

Source:
https://t.me/fighter_bomber/21302

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1930881093193830702.html

1/ An officer of the Russian 37th Motor Rifle Regiment says its men are being "slaughtered" by their own commanders. A former Wagner mercenary who was "eager to fight for our country" is said to have "ended up as meat in the hands of his own commanders" who executed him. ⬇️ 

2/ 35-year-old Anatoly Aleksandrovich Savin, callsign 'Pokhula', went missing in November 2024 on the front line east of Lyman, in the Donetsk region. His regiment is a relatively new formation, created only around May 2023. https://x.com/JohnH105/status/1750677620570706310

3/ According to his mother Lidiya, Savin was an ex-Wagner Group mercenary who joined the army (likely in 2023) after the Russian Ministry of Defence effectively dismantled Wagner's presence in Ukraine. 

4/ Savin told her repeatedly "there is chaos in the unit, he was repeatedly beaten and put in a pit because he refused to follow the criminal orders of the commanders. Who forced him to beat and humiliate new arrivals."

5/ "He told me that he would like, if possible, to get to the nearest prosecutor's office and tell what is happening there, but he could not, because there are checkpoints everywhere.

6/ "The last time my son contacted me was on 19/11/24, he said that he was being delivered to the command and if he did not contact me in the next two or three days, to sound the alarm that they could reset his status [execute him]."

7/ Lidiya's account is corroborated by that of Lieutenant Dmitry Gennadyevich Sokolov, a battalion commander from the regiment and a fellow former Wagnerite, who has spoken out in an video message condemning the behaviour of its officers.

8/ He says: "[The men] were simply driven to slaughter, to machine guns without cover. Almost over 100 people were killed there, just to be zeroed out, they simply zeroed out our guys, our fighters..."

9/ According to Sokolov, Savin refused to lead the assault in which so many of his comrades died, considering it to be a suicide mission. He was allegedly imprisoned and murdered by his commanders as a result of his protest.

10/ Sokolov says that the Russian MOD had falsely announced that the regiment had taken the objective "long ago", in an example of the widespread practice of "taking on credit" that is likely to have caused the death of thousands of Russian soldiers. https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1888551675918512471

11/ "There was no cover, there was nothing at all. They were driven across an open field Everyone who tried to get through, not a single person got in, they all died. And that’s why he didn’t lead his group there ...

12/ "We can't approach them through a clear field without cover. [The Ukrainians] just cover us with kamikaze drones and that's it. So we can't go even 10 metres because there's no cover, no support, no artillery. I mean, there's nothing at all.

13/ "When mortars start to work on us our artillery fights back. But it doesn't work. We come out and they shoot us at practically point-blank range. With cluster munitions, with machine guns, with kamikazes."

14/ Savin was put in a zindan (an open-air pit covered by a metal grating) before he disappeared. Escape was a practical impossibility. Sokolov says: "The regiment’s pit is guarded by sentries. They refer to the fact that he escaped from the regiment’s pit, that it was open." 

15/ "It is impossible to escape from there. ... I have the impression that they simply zeroed him out, that’s all."

16/ Savin's mother Lidiya says she "started looking for him on 11/24/24, to which I was given different versions: he was in the hospital, he was in prison in Zaitseve, and then they told me that he escaped from the pit."

17/ "Now my son has [been given] the status of a deserter, and this not only upsets me, he was eager to fight for our country, he could not abandon his comrades in arms, he went to defend the Motherland, but ended up as meat in the hands of his own commanders.

18/ "I have information that my son was reset on the orders of Uzor ['Pattern'] (this is the commander of the assault squad). I beg you, help me return my son home, give him back to his native land.

19/ "And I ask you to change the status of a deserter, which was given to him illegally. He was never a deserter and after going through a difficult path, liberating Bakhmut, he went to fight again. Because he understood that he already had experience and the ability to fight."

20/ Sokolov corroborates her account, saying that the then regiment commander with the call sign Uzor (who currently serves in the 19th tank regiment) and the battalion commander with the call sign Sultan were responsible.

21/ He claims that the regiment's leadership refuses to record the injuries of wounded soldiers and sends them back to fight. "They destroyed so many people, sent wounded soldiers to the front lines, that is, ... their injuries were not recorded."

22/ He also accuses the commanders of running a scam involving making fake reports of injuries in order to claim compensation payments. Similar scams are likely widespread in the Russian army; elsewhere, commanders have been known to steal soldiers' injury compensation.

23/ "Fake injuries are organised, that is, 80 percent of these injuries go to the battalion commander, the rest goes to the soldier. ... How they deceived the Ministry of Defense [is by claiming] 2-3 injuries per soldier, that is, 6-9 million rubles [$66,666-100,000] were taken."

24/ He also says that 'Sultan' was involved in prostitution and "distribution of narcotic drugs on the front line, exactly on the front line, he was involved in the distribution of narcotic drugs very much." Corruption of this sort is widespread. https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1867893571744874791

25/ Sokolov says that "many different crimes were committed there [in the regiment]. I can testify to the prosecutor's office, but only through legal entities, because I am afraid that now they can send me by force to the front lines and reset my account." /end

Sources:
🔹https://t.me/soldat_prav/11198
🔹https://t.me/soldat_prav/11220
🔹https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/2156

1/ Today's Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases was launched using drones concealed in shipping containers. It shows that Ukraine has managed to weaponise the global logistics system, and will alarm security planners worldwide. ⬇️ https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1929149397075361835?t=mUNrv8sMIS5VO1hxvc9HZw&s=19

2/ Video from the scene of the attacks shows drones flying out from the top of a standard 20 ft shipping container. Photos released by the Ukrainians show that the drones were concealed in hidden compartments, with the roofs likely ejected explosively. 

3/ It's not clear how they were controlled, but judging from the fact that pictures seem to have got back to Ukraine in real time, some kind of satellite control - perhaps through a relay in the containers - seems likely.

4/ The drivers of the trucks carrying the containers seem to have been unaware of their cargoes. It's likely that they were ordinary commercial truck drivers who had taken contracts to deliver the containers to specific places across Russia by approximately the same time.

5/ The containers were clearly assembled outside Russia, most likely in Ukraine, and then shipped across borders - possibly via Georgia or Central Asia - to their targets. This isn't the first time that Ukraine has used this method.

6/ On 8 October 2022, the Kerch Bridge was badly damaged by a massive bomb concealed inside a trailer hauled by a Russian truck. It had been shipped from Odesa via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, as this thread details. https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1580303771208339456

7/ Armenia and the Central Asian states are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led customs union. Customs checks are done at the EEU border, which provides a back door into Russia for many kinds of smuggled goods. 

8/ Alternatively, it's possible that the containers could have been shipped directly into Russia, as there's plenty of possibilities for doing so in the Baltic or the Far East. Either way, they were not detected when they entered Russian or while they were en route.

9/ Russian freight haulers receive delivery orders via websites such as ATI. The one below was for the cargo which blew up on the Kerch Bridge in October 2022. It's likely that the delivery of the drone containers was arranged similarly. 

10/ It's unsurprising that the drones weren't detected. In 2024, Russia's container market stood at 6.4 million TEUs - in other words, the equivalent of 6.4 million 20-foot containers. It's physically impossible to check those sorts of numbers.

11/ This is, of course, a nightmare scenario for security planners worldwide. Approximately 866 million TEUs were shipped worldwide in 2024 alone. As Ukraine has just shown, any of them could contain drones or explosives that can be delivered to any sensitive target. /end

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1929166249348476968.html?utm_campaign=topunroll

1/ The career of a Russian UAV operator, as described by a Russian warblogger:

"A young man of about 25 years old is going to sign a contract, hoping to become a UAV operator. He has an engineering education and a couple of years of work experience after graduating." 

2/ "He is shoved into assaults, without any discussion. They ignore his request to enroll him as a drone operator, they ignore his higher education. The training before the first battle is less than 14 days.

3/ "The guy ends up storming a populated area, where he receives a moderately severe wound to the leg (dropped from a copter).

A month later, slightly healed, he is returned to the regiment, where he is listened to and sent to a newly formed UAV platoon.

4/ "After 2 months of the contract, out of 24 people from his assault platoon, 14 are dead, the rest are all wounded to varying degrees. He alone deserved a career as a 'birdman'." /end

Source:
https://t.me/vault8pro/52580