The Russia is getting more evil thread

[Mark_Weston]

Russia can’t pay for mobilisation.

A surprising (to me at least) amount of the mobilisation costs are falling directly on regional governments, despite the fact that the army is federal.

As a result, equipment is shit, one-off payments and salaries aren’t arriving, some regions are paying in kind (fish, live sheep, firewood, deer carcasses, you name it), and government employees are making “voluntary” payments to help make up shortfalls.

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

I think we’ve seen all of these anecdotes before, but what was interesting to me is how systemic the problems are.

[rho21]

@Grifman

@schurem

Cleaning the orcs out of that peninsula opens up the seaway into Kherson. It also lessens the threat of artillery fire.

Not really. You still have to go up river with the Russians still controlling one side. And as long as Russians are in artillery range, you can’t send ships upriver to Kherson, even if they don’t control the river bank.

Ah, I see it: it’s not opening the river to Kherson, it’s opening the river to Mykolaiv.

[Dejin]

@rho21

Ah, I see it: it’s not opening the river to Kherson, it’s opening the river to Mykolaiv.

That makes sense:

[alekseivolchok]

This is similar to COVID response. Back then Putin has laid all the responsibility and costs on local governors. Without giving them additional resources, naturally. It kinda worked as in it didn’t result in massive economic and political costs, so naturally it’s a good idea. Russia lost a lot of people and had the lowest vaccination rates among developed countries but those are not important stats.

[Strollen]

Risking your life for a flag. The Ukrainian people are giving us a master class in patriotism, wow,

[alekseivolchok]

Even among Ukrainians, there are idiots who don’t know which hand to use for a Roman salute.

Bringing it here before you see it with the expected comments about how see, they’re the real Nazis.

Поддубный |Z|О|V| edition

[jpinard]

These people are monsters:

Video shows sledgehammer execution of Russian mercenary

(Russian who switched sides to fight for Ukraine). Wagner group sledgehammered him in the head to execute him.

[alekseivolchok]

This story is much more complex, really. I saw claims that this guy was very pro-Russian. He was drafted from prison by Wagner, he posted a lot of anti-Ukrainian stuff in his time with Wagner, and supposedly he was captured by Ukrainians and then exchanged. It’s entirely possible Prigozhin tries to demonstrate how he’s the coolest guy around and does so by cosplaying ISIS with invented enemies.

Prigozhin also recently accused the governor of St. Petersburg of treason and the investigation is on. He really is the best sign of Russia getting into a failed state… state.

[Grifman]

This is insane. The regions are responsible for paying and partially equipping the new army? Not the central govt? Getting paid in kind? This isn’t an army, it’s a feudal levy. Then again, why worry about paying cannon fodder if you are going to get them killed in a couple of weeks.

[Grifman]

Even so, with missiles and attack aircraft, that river really isn’t open to shipping.

[Mark_Weston]

@Grifman

This isn’t an army, it’s a feudal levy.

Haha, yep!

[scottagibson]

@Grifman

This is insane. The regions are responsible for paying and partially equipping the new army? Not the central govt? Getting paid in kind? This isn’t an army, it’s a feudal levy.

Yeah, there’s just no way Ukraine can beat this modern juggernaut. /s

It is insane.

[JonRowe]

I think it really will come down to how much will the Russian people accept their sons and husbands dying for this.

Russia has the bodies to throw at this, it just becomes a question of how many they can get away with before people start revolting.

They started with the less populated and ethnically “non-russian” populations to pull from, what happens when they start having to pull people from the suburbs of Moscow and St. Petersburg?

Unfortunately for Ukraine, the most recent estimates of casualties in the military for both sides is that things are pretty even.

That is the estimate of one general, Mark Milley, the one who wanted to push peace talks, so his estimates might be trying to play up the number of casualties.

“You’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded,” Gen Milley said. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.”

Ukraine war: US estimates 200,000 military casualties on all sides

This is probably the latest figure we have from a possibly reliable source, as I am sure he would have access to information the public would not.

Even if he is playing up the numbers for Ukraine, I would think Ukraine would need to be winning the war of attrition by a long ways to keep up the conflict, so even if he is being harsh with his exaggeration here, even a 2:1 ratio (50k to 100k) of casualties is probably not sustainable in the long term for Ukraine.

[Soapyfrog]

The Ukrainian side is much more transparent that the Russian one. It’s believable that Ukrainian losses are in the ballpark of Russian ones but you don’t see the kind of strain you would expect to see on the general population. I suspect Ukraine will be more resilient to losses than Russia despite the smaller manpower pool (which by the way is still considerable, the limiting factor for UA is equipment, not willing manpower).

[KevinC]

@JonRowe

I think it really will come down to how much will the Russian people accept their sons and husbands dying for this.

Right. No one wants to be there, aside from Putin. The Washington Post has an article today talking about Russian men of conscription age that weren’t able to flee the country hiding in the woods to avoid getting rounded up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/14/russia-young-men-hiding-mobilization/

The Washington Post interviewed five other men who have spent recent weeks hiding in rented apartments, country houses, and even a music studio. Some were interviewed by phone, others agreed to be visited by a photographer in their places of hiding. Although they come from different backgrounds, professions, and family circumstances, they expressed an identical goal: to avoid killing, or being killed, in Ukraine.

In the interviews, most said that they still don’t feel safe from Putin’s war machine, and they each requested anonymity to avoid being identified by the authorities.

“I’m not rushing to go back to normal lifestyle,” said a 38-year-old lab technician who was ambushed by a group of police and enlistment officers who handed him a summons at his home in late September.

Meanwhile, Ukrainians are liberating their own homes or fighting to free grandma from the occupation forces. Russia has a larger population but the Ukrainian side is a lot more motivated to keep fighting. Hopefully morale issues continue to mount and unrest increases on the Russian side.

[Grifman]

Definitely in the “more evil” category:

Michael Weiss 🌻🇺🇸🇮🇪

[KevinC]

The only hammer video I’m willing to watch is the MC kind.

[alekseivolchok]

Calling it a private Putin’s army is missing the point. The spiciest thing is that this PMC operates completely outside of Russian law and technically owes nothing to Putin.

[Zylon]

Oh no, the ghost of Gallagher has turned evil.

[KevinC]

You’re a bastard for making me laugh at that. :)