1/ Russia's volunteer soldiers (known as kontraktniki) have evolved significantly since the start of the Ukraine war, with the quality of the soldiers steadily decreasing. A Russian commentary describes how the profile of the Russian contract soldier has changed over time. ⬇️
2/ The author of the 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel, one of the relatively few surviving mobilised soldiers from September 2022, writes of his experience of encountering contract soldiers over the course of 2024 to 2025:
3/ "My first personal encounter with them occurred in January-February 2024, when our regiment was deployed to a rear-area training ground as part of a rotation (for only 20 days, but that's not the point).
4/ "There, I interacted with new contract soldiers who had just started being sent to the regiment. I spoke with them in three places: in the soldiers' mess hall, in the wash line, and in the laundry line.
5/ "In January 2024, these were ordinary men aged 40-60, with a few young men (19-25) who weren't serving their mandatory military service. And almost every other man hadn't been in the army either.
6/ "For the most part, they were normal representatives of the working class (including those from rural areas), but in terms of information, they were like children.
7/ "They didn't learn about the realities of the Special Military Operation beforehand, either online or from the relatives of mobilised soldiers from their own communities. They believed the TV shows and signed contracts without reading the fine print.
8/ "The next stage of their acquaintance was August or September 2024. Then I went to the far rear, to a compact camp for prisoners from assault companies "B." I saw another type of contract soldier... A terrifying sight, to be honest.
9/ "Imagine pirates from modern artists' artwork: grey-haired, with long, overgrown hair, toothless, with looks ranging from hatred to mild insanity, [and] malnourished (underweight).
10/ "And a couple of contract soldiers from the regular army leading them—with normal muscles, neat haircuts, and the eyes of people who live their lives much more easily. An unforgettable contrast.
11/ "These were criminals, tired of serving long prison sentences (yet again), with serious crimes—murderers, robbers, drug dealers.
12/ "And then came the third phase of familiarisation with new contract soldiers, in January 2025. Once again, I was sent to the rear. And I saw a number of people in worse shape than the prisoners from the paragraph above. They were homeless and hardened alcoholics.
13/ "At that time, fighters from this very same replacement force were dying almost every week. Simply from the strain. They hadn't done physical work (with shovels) or carried heavy objects like body armor, machine guns, and ammunition in ages.
14/ "Then the regiment completed its offensive missions and went on the defensive. They stopped giving us so many replacements, and a reshuffling of the existing forces began.
15/ "Important: with the end of the long, bloody offensive, the constant threats of sending them on assault missions also ended. The number of people doing paperwork has significantly decreased, while document flow has increased two to three times.
16/ "People are now valued.🙂 After they stopped giving them out, and in the organizational frenzy, the rear and fire support were squeezed out a bit too much.
17/ "And then came the fourth stage of acquaintance with all the aforementioned examples of new contract soldiers who, after being wounded, are unfit for combat and are working in the rear.
18/ "Now we really have a pirate ship. Some of the men joke to themselves: "I used to be 'call sign Trap,' and now I'm 'Jack Boneless.'"😜 ("Mechanical Arm," "Steel Head," "Thomas Half Finger")." /end Source: https://t.me/vault8pro/53022
@ChrisO_wiki Another episode of "totally a real russian owned and operated Telegram channel." "Trust me guys." Meanwhile, Ukraine's vanning of people off the streets continues. You know, you can actually talk to people in Russia. I do every day. And when I ask them about this stuff, and the
@ChrisO_wiki The worst reboot of the "pirates of the Caribbean" nobody wanted. Russians should ask for their money back
@ChrisO_wiki I‘d say: fck around and find out 🤣
@ChrisO_wiki @threadreaderapp unroll
@ChrisO_wiki The question is (if he survives long enough to report on them) what will the next wave of forced recruits look like? 16-18 year olds? Pensioners? Or more foreign troops taking note of how weak their Russian hosts are looking these days?
@ChrisO_wiki When you value anything in life you do your best to get it Russians don't need more land there is no value in acquiring more land Russia sends no value people to a no value war (with added terrorism) that was planned not to affect high value Russians but has now getting worse
@ChrisO_wiki I hope everyone keeps this in mind when russians are on screen threatening everyone with their 2nd greatest military and stuff. haha
@ChrisO_wiki Armée 🇷🇺 gonflé de STUPIDE singe
@ChrisO_wiki LMFAO the corpses of dead Colombian mercenaries that are fighting "for Ukraine" say hello. They leave their wives and children behind only for them to get nothing once they've been eliminated. EU/NATO values 💪 Chris the wiki rétàrđ has never heard of telegram.
@ChrisO_wiki This is why they are losing 1000 toothless pirates a day. It’s actually being used as a meat grinder to free up prisons and keep homeless people off the streets. How many Muscovites are on the frontlines.. answer not many.