The number of identified Russian losses remains at historically very high values, a sign that what I had written about two weeks ago was not a backlogs-driven number but a serious upward trend, exacerbated by the arrival of obituaries of the fallen during the very bloody final part of the battle of Avdiivka (note that they have stopped counting in a separate category the low number of Wagnerites who are still discovered as KIA nowadays and the number is now integrated among the regular KIAs).

That said, this Telegram channel (“Poisk_in_UA”) is also very useful as it brings to light the cahiers de doléances by Russian soldiers as well as video complaints about wrongful acts that are going on. It was in this channel that in January the video of the complaint by former Wagnerites who joined the 331st Airborne Regiment of the 98th VDV Division was published (it was later also published by Romanov and translated by Dmtri from WarTranslated), in which the soldiers spoke about the fact they had seized drugs and had come into conflict with the traffic police of the occupied Luhansk Oblast, who were supplying narcotics to Russian soldiers - they allegedly did this because they said that many servicemen died in action under the influence of drugs. In general, drug dealing at the front is a quite common thing, and not only on the Russian side: there are drug dealing rings in certain Ukrainian brigades as well. These are normal things when an army has hundreds of thousands of men from any social background, but what matters is the response of the military authorities to this.

Over the past weeks, several videos have been released about the mistreatment of soldiers by the officers.

In early March, a mobilized serviceman of the 30th Motorized Brigade (2nd Army of the Central MD, active in the Stepove/Berdychi area) reported in a video that he was an eyewitness to some regrettable incidents. Two soldiers were allegedly hit in the legs by the battalion commander (call sign “Sarmat”) because they refused to attack. In another case, five soldiers were eliminated at once, guilty of abandoning their main group or retreating. It’s said that these were not isolated cases; he and several fellow soldiers abandoned the unit and contacted the military police to report that, being initially promised help with the transfer to another unit. Subsequently, he was arrested and tortured by waterboarding to force him to change his testimony. During the torture he was reportedly injured in a leg and a few days later eventually sent to another unit. It’s also reported of cases in which wounded (Russian) servicemen were killed on the spot by commanders. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/49053

Last Saturday, another video came out in which the former commander of the Storm (assault) company (Konstantin Mykhanik) of the “Sarmat” Battalion (that would be the commander of this battalion) of the 30th Motorized Brigade, in addition to saying that his company went into battle with 114 people and returned with 20, reported a very serious crime. The unit commanders allegedly had a criminal plan to kill soldiers returning from hospitals (meaning they had also just received a payment of 3 million rubles as compensation), steal their personal belongings and credit cards, and pocket the money. The slain soldiers were buried in a forest. After 14 servicemen escaped from the unit, those bodies were dug up and taken to an unknown location. There was an order to eliminate inconvenient witnesses on the first line to make them look like fallen in action. These 5 fighters who are in the video learnt that they would be eliminated shortly after and decided to flee to the rear to expose the illegalities taking place in the battalion. Also in this battalion, blocking detachments are used, with orders to shoot any soldier retreating from the assault mission. Within the battalion people were easily killed for anything: for any slightest provocation, for complaining or drinking. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/51236

These seem to me to be very serious facts and I find very difficult for the Russian command to ignore or downplay them. I will now list some other incidents, less serious but still interesting.

One thing that seems to happen relatively frequently is reports of bad treatment of Tuvans, with requests by them to be sent elsewhere (usually to the 55th Mountain Brigade of the 41st Army of the Central MD, which is largely staffed by Tuvans, including the officers). A video came out this week in which a soldier from the 1st Motorized Brigade of the 1st Corps complained that his commanders don’t offer any rest after missions, not even giving him a chance to wash up once he returns, and use violence against subordinates. This fighter was reportedly kept caged in a basement for a day and sent back to the front line the next day. In the video, he asks for help from authorities of Tuva Republic to arrange the transfer to another unit. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/50767

In this video in January, a mobilized serviceman in the 110th Motorized Brigade of the 1st Corps complained that out of 20 fellow Tuvans in the unit there were 5 left, the commanders don’t allow rest and threaten him and his comrades-in-arms with execution, as well as being frequently insulted and humiliated by commanders and having had his papers confiscated. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/42692

The same thing had also happened in February 2023. Mobilized men from Tuva applied, successfully, to the authorities of their republic in order to be transferred from the units of the 1st Corps (former DPR Army), where they were abused, to the 55th Mountain Brigade. https://t.me/horizontal_russia/19389

Another pair of videos released this week concerns two different groups of soldiers from the 6th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division of the Central MD. The first group claimed that they were transferred in January 2024 (i.e. presumably as soon as they arrived in Avdiivka) to the former PMC “Veterans”, now an Assault and Reconnaissance Brigade (they are those who conquered the “Tsarska Ohota” by passing inside the famous pipe). During this time they were without support and had to get food and water on their own. Russian sources also wrote a few weeks ago of how the 1487th Regiment of the Territorial Forces was subordinated to the “Veterans” in January, during the battles in the southern flank of the city, suffering very huge losses. On February 19 they returned to the 6th Tank Regiment, where they discovered that they were officially marked as members of the “Veterans”, and in the ensuing confusion they didn’t receive combat pay and awards, and the wounded didn’t have adequate support. On March 6 their unit was sent to the 10th Tank Regiment (now part of the 20th Motorized Division, 8th Army of the Southern MD) and very soon after to the 114th Motorized Brigade of the 1st Corps. Here they were given machine guns and were loaded into Kamaz trucks, told they were going to a training camp, except being sent to the front lines, instead. They did not even know who their new commander was and their request to know that was ignored. So they returned to the base of the 6th Tank Regiment, but they still cannot find out which unit they belong to, what is their current specialty and who their commanders are. Some of the soldiers among those in the video have not received payment and others are even listed as MIAs. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/50930

The second group complained of the same problem regarding the payment of salaries and bonuses after the undocumented transfer to the “Veterans”. They, too, were later sent to the 114th Motorized Brigade, complaining that in this brigade they were treated like beasts: they were sent at night to the area of the Coke Plant, where they were ordered to go on assault with an assault rifle and four magazines. The brigade command is defined as being incompetent and ignorant about the situation. The assaults are called suicidal, and of two companies of 220 people, the majority are wounded and about 75 remain in them. Some of the soldiers in the video have had their documents and personal belongings stolen and have had to buy back what they need with their own money. https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/50931

Small final trivia: those who have often followed the war will remember this guy, Aleksandr, kwown as Sasha (the one on the foreground). It was also rumored that the Ukrainians took him prisoner in late August, during the liberation of Robotyne (it wasn’t him). Well, he died in action on March 4. He was part of the “Kerch” Detachment, a small unit of volunteers (I think company-sized) and composed largely of Zoomers, attached to the 42nd Motorized Division (58th Army, Southern MD), which was very busy during the summer counteroffensive.

Apparently, Sasha was a former member of the 3rd Spetsnaz GRU Brigade, which is the reason why, even though he was fighting in Robotyne, he still wore the patch of the O with a reversed V inside, on a red background, i.e. the patch used by soldiers of units of the Central Military District. As far as I read on the “Motopatriot” channel (who was a friend of Sasha), from a message later deleted due to pressure from GRU as far as written (but I had saved the screenshot of the chat so I could translate it on Google Translate), in September 2022 both the brigade commander and the commander of Sasha’s battalion were replaced, guilty in his words of going against the “system”. They were replaced by incompetents who wanted to keep themselves as far away from combat as possible. The brigade was rendered combat ineffective (I believe at the time of the second battle of Lyman, which makes sense) and the key figures in the brigade ran away. At that point, Sasha and other young guys but experienced in various branches founded the “Kerch” Detachment. Apparently, it was involved in the attacks against Robotyne of the the last month, and the unit had major losses (Sasha in late February had already been wounded and lost several friends). It’s stated that now the detachment will be disbanded.