AbstractCurvesMar 9, 2023
ChrisO_wiki
1/ Russian convicts are being recruited directly by the Russian Ministry of Defence to fight in the war in Ukraine, but are being sent directly into assaults with little training or equipment. After 75 convicts went into one assault, only 11 reportedly survived. ⬇️
Mar 9, 2023 at 6:53pmWeb
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
2/ In a series of posts and videos, the Russian Telegram channel 'Caution, News' (ON) reports on the experiences of prisoners recruited from penal colony no. 4 (IK-4) in the Stavropol Territory. MOD representatives came to the colony on 9 February to recruit prisoners.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
3/ The MOD had previously left prisoner recruitment to the Wagner mercenary group, which is reported to have recruited as many as 50,000 convicts. However, Wagner's huge losses and Yevgeny Prigozhin's quarrels with the MOD leadership have ended its recruitment activities inside jails.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
4/ According to a former IK-4 inmate, the MOD offered payments and the removal of all criminal records if the prisoners agreed to fight. They were promised that they would only be sent into battle after three months of training. Unsurprisingly, this promise was not kept.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
5/ Three days after signing their contracts, the men were taken to a village near Donetsk where they had only a week's training and were issued a minimum of equipment, limited to small arms and shovels. The convicts had expected to fight under the North Caucasus Military District of the Russian Army as contract soldiers but, in their words, they were 'resold' to the 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DNR), presumably to replenish one of the region's decimated military units.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
6/ Commanders then tried to send them straight into battle but the men refused. In a covertly recorded conversation, their officers explained that the men could be shot to restore discipline, if they disobeyed or if they tried to leave. The discussion soon turned into a heated argument.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
7/ The men protested, complaining they hadn't been trained and weren't given copies of their contracts. They suspected this was a deliberate ploy to ensure that if they died they could be “written off as missing” – which means not making the promised payments to their families.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
8/ The men also complained about their lack of equipment. An officer assured them that they only needed one grenade launcher or radio per squad, and that a shovel (probably the MPL-50 entrenching tool, designed in 1869) was more useful than anything else they would have.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
9/ This didn't reassure the men, who refused to fight unless the terms under which they were recruited were honoured. They said that they were willing to fight and "atone" for their crimes but not under the conditions in which they now found themselves.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
10/ Their commander claimed that other convicts, like a previous group of 75, had not refused to go into assaults. A man angrily retorted that he had crossed paths with that group, of whom only 11 returned alive but seriously injured (the commander claimed only 7 had died).
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
11/ ON reports that "After a lengthy argument with their commanders, one of the officers told the men: "You are fucked"." One of the convicts says that later that day, the men were lined up by DNR paramilitaries, who began to beat them. They were loaded onto Ural trucks and taken to Donetsk city, where they were imprisoned in a basement in the Voroshilovsky district without any provisions or toilets.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023
12/ The men have since reportedly been taken out of the basement one by one, most likely subjected to physical and psychological pressure, and taken to an unknown destination. They are said to believe that the Russian authorities are well aware of what is going on, including the suicidal assaults, but are choosing to ignore the problem.
Show threadChrisO_wikiMar 9, 2023

13/ Eleven of the men managed to escape at some point and are on the run. One of them asks in a video sent to ON: "Should I surrender? Will they take me alive or kill me? These are my thoughts. To whom should I surrender? I don't know who's who, who to trust." /end

Sources:
🔹 https://t.me/ostorozhno_novosti/14706
🔹 https://t.me/ostorozhno_novosti/14713
🔹 https://t.me/ostorozhno_novosti/14715
🔹 https://t.me/ostorozhno_novosti/14716

Осторожно, новости

Минобороны вербует заключенных для участия в СВО. По словам одного из завербованных, им не дали никаких контрактов и хотели отправить в бой через неделю после подготовки. С “Осторожно, новости” связался бывший заключенный ИК-4 Ставропольского края. По его словам, 9 февраля в колонию приехали сотрудники Минобороны (а не ЧВК) и предложили зэкам “послужить родине” — поехать воевать в зону СВО. За полгода службы осужденные должны были получить выплаты и снятие всех судимостей. При этом мужчинам обещали, что в первый бой их отправят только через три месяца подготовки. Наш собеседник согласился, хотя ему оставался год до освобождения — по словам мужчины, его привлекла возможность снять судимости, с которыми не берут на госслужбу. Согласие на службу в зоне СВО стало для него “чудовищной ошибкой”, и теперь он хочет “очистить свое имя”. По словам мужчины, через три дня после подписания контракта осужденных вывезли в одно из сел Донецкой области, где они и проходили обучение. А уже через неделю командование попыталось отправить зэков в первый бой. Мужчины запротестовали: во-первых, обещанные три месяца не прошли, и они еще ничему не успели научиться; во-вторых, им так и не дали документы, подтверждающий статус контрактников. Отправку на передовую отложили, зэкам вручили бланки договоров с неким “Управлением” — якобы теперь они служат в Народной милиции ДНР, которая считается частью силовых структур РФ. После продолжительных споров с командованием один из офицеров заявил мужчинам: “Вас на***ли”.

Telegram
Show threadmaiamaiaMar 10, 2023
@ChrisO_wiki tbh, I think 19th century shovels were probably better than modern ones, but heavier
Show threadMusta dawned on me thuslyMar 9, 2023
@ChrisO_wiki The strategy is called "rope a dope". It doesn't matter if your losses are 10 to 1, "they are, after all, criminals". Once they've worn their enemy down, then #putin can bring in the real troops with help from #China .
Show threadAda Ґ.Mar 9, 2023
@blackburied @ChrisO_wiki
If there were any “real troops” they’d have been sent in last April. Or May. Or August. Or…
So unless China physically sends in its troops (which would escalate this to WWIII, so it’s not happening) russia is just dragging this out hoping that doing the same thing will yield different results.
Show threadMusta dawned on me thuslyMar 9, 2023

@adrcatgul @ChrisO_wiki While I hope you're correct, we certainly need to plan for #putin to escalate. Do you really think his ego is too small and not prepared to start #WW3 if he needs to?

Likewise, #xi will not attack #taiwan should #putin fail... so don't underestimate their involvement in #Ukraine. The ill effects of #russian sanctions in the west pale in comparison to what will happen to western economies once we sanction #china .

Show threadAda Ґ.Mar 9, 2023
@blackburied @ChrisO_wiki
He won’t because he wants to live to lord over the charred remains of what’s left and be admired for his conquest.
If he starts full-on WWIII (this arguably is already) he will absolutely not survive, and he knows it.
Show threadMusta dawned on me thuslyMar 9, 2023
@adrcatgul @ChrisO_wiki My conjecture: #putin will escalate until he can rule over the entirety of #ukraine and wipe out all remnants of #Ukrainian culture with no possibility of answering to any #warcrimes . I hope he doesn't succeed, but cannot fathom an ego like #putin's would stop short of anything less.