This Russian says that soldiers are so conditioned to do what they are told that they will shoot their best friend if he tries to flee.
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1/ A Russian soldier says that every man in his unit has been ordered to shoot his comrades if they try to flee, or face being shot themselves as a punishment. He describes an atmosphere of paranoia amidst huge losses, which he puts at 95% of men going into assaults. ⬇️
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 3:07 PM
2/ The man says that he is from Altai Krai, where he was made to sign a contract to avoid going to trial for an unspecified offence for which he faced eight years' imprisonment. He has been serving in the army for six months and is currently a stormtrooper.
3/ He says that "every second person here drinks, to gain courage, to go somewhere [on a mission]." The reason why is understandable: "A hundred people would join a group [for a mission], take a position, and only five would come out."
4/ This, he explains, is "because half of them try to escape, and everyone would kill them." The men are under orders to shoot anyone who retreats: "On the front lines, they generally say that if someone tries to run away, they'll shoot him right away."
5/ Not surprisingly, this doesn't help with morale or developing interpersonal relationships: "Even, fuck, [it's like if] we've become friends, he's the only one I've ever been friends with. Like, okay, [even] your best friend, you have to do it."
6/ "There's nowhere to go: it's either you or him being shot. Well, if you don't reset him, you are reset yourself. That's how it is." /end
How bad are things for the average Russian? Pretty bad, according to this Chinese businessman.
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INTERESTING….
On the way back I was watching a video in a video of a Chinese businessman who had been living in Moscow for a couple of months . He was complaining about how horrendously expensive everything was compared to Russian incomes.
He’d leased an apartment, relatively modest, for which the
— The Analyst (@militaryanalyst.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 11:27 AM
monthly parking charge was more than the salary of a Russian senior teacher. He showed how even though at present there are few food shortages it’s often down to the fact that things are so pricey it’s the cheap stuff that’s being purchased rather than what would have been the better quality stuff.
His overall observation was that the war and taxes were sucking the life out of the country and while Russians are putting a good face on it publicly, they’re worried and short of money for anything other than basic needs. His rough translation was ‘they’re all mad and this war is f***ing them over’
At what point do you just keep running?
WARNING: This video shows a lot of dead bodies.
Drones working effectively with artillery.
Ukraine continues to degrade Russia’s air defense network in occupied Ukraine.
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HUR operators detected and destroyed three high-value Russian air defense systems on 23 and 24 October, including a Buk-M3 launcher and two Nebo-SVU radar stations in occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and Crimea, the agency reported.
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Russia continues its campaign to raze Kherson.
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#WarCrimes
Russian surveillance video, yes, they’re that proud, shows MLRS rounds landing randomly around Kherson. The impact pattern confirms non-targeted fire inside civilian areas — textbook violation of Article 51(4) of the Geneva Conventions prohibitions on indiscriminate attacks.
#OSINT
1/2
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— OSINT Intuit (@urikikaski.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 5:40 AM
When I watch this video what jumps out to me is the apparent lack of any sort of Russian air defense of what is an obvious target for Ukrainian drones.
Russian Commander: Here, men, use these thermal blankets. They will protect you from drones.
Narrator: No, they won’t.
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Russian infantry and their "expert use" of anti-drone capes drive Russian military correspondents to hysteria, who note that local commanders lack understanding of proper deployment and fail to provide electronic warfare cover or airspace monitoring.
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 8:52 AM
But has he made any Crazy Ivans?
Who could have imagined that freeing a convicted murderer might result in more crimes being committed?
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Pretty wild stuff: a convicted murderer recruited from prison to fight in Ukraine has been reimprisoned for 20 years for robbing and extorting hospitalized Russian soldiers. His schemes involved stealing phones and even posing as an MP officer to solicit bribes. www.kommersant.ru/doc/8139845?tg
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— Kevin Rothrock (@kevinrothrock.me) October 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Let’s check in on the Russian economy.
The Central Bank once again succumbs to political pressure to lower rates.
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📉 Even a 5–10% reduction in exports by Lukoil and Rosneft, combined with an expansion of the discount, could cost the Russian budget up to 120 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) per month, said Vladimir Chernov, an analyst at Freedom Finance Global.
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— Savchenko Volodymyr (@savchenkoua.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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❗️🇮🇳India's Reliance has increased its purchases of Middle Eastern oil following 🇺🇸US sanctions against 🇷🇺Russia, Bloomberg reports.
Reliance, India's largest importer of Russian oil, is now diversifying its supplies amid fears of disruptions and restrictions imposed by Washington.
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— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Belgium worries about setting a precedent that will make others hesitate to put their money in European banks.
Master military strategist Putin is also a master at banking and finance.
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RUN RUN RUN ON RUSSIA’S BANKS…
It’s almost agony to watch how one Putin decision - born out of his ignorance of day to day life, because he notoriously doesn’t use mobile phones or computers, has led to an increasingly rapid bank run.
Putin’s insistence that mobile internet be shut down for
— The Analyst (@militaryanalyst.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 9:56 AM
extensive periods of the day almost nationwide - because they think the Ukrainians are using it to target their drones (they were but they’ve moved on now), has led to another extraordinary own goal. Partly that’s also down to the decreasing levels of trust the public has in the banks - and many
Remember 1998, when the banking system collapsed and the IMF had to bail the country out. No mobile internet means digital payment systems don’t work, you cant manage your bank accounts and move money. The result a huge increase in cash withdrawals both to pay bills and to make sure they have cash
if the banks fail. Since June when the internet closedowns started something between 190 billion and 282 billion is being pulled from bank accounts every four weeks, and Russians have stopped depositing cash, hoarding it at home, despite 17%+ interest rates. October is looking to be new peak. The
Government tries not to look panicked, but the banks are because it’s burning through the newly printed government cash stash that’s supposed to keep them afloat. Add to that horrific credit card default debt, increasing mortgage arrears, then on top, the dodgey business loans to failing companies
in 5,000 denomination notes is completed printing at the end of this month, and its existence is ensuring the run carries on, without changing the underlying problems and making others like inflation worse. It’s a doom spiral in slow motion, slowly speeding up.
TASS: Never mind.
This sounds like fallout from the death of the commander at Kherson who was telling his superiors that they had taken the islands in the Dnipro River.
The deployment of Terminators is probably not as far away as we think.
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Honestly, at this point this is probably the least surprising headline based on where miltech is heading: "A San Francisco-based startup is developing humanoid Phantom MK-1 robots designed specifically for combat." www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCFN...
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— Samuel Bendett (@sambendett.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Another 910 Russians.
A lieutenant colonel killed in a meat assault?
He must have pissed someone off a whole lot.
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Lieutenant Colonel Унинский Александр Петрович (Uninsky Alexander Petrovich) of the 336th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade was eliminated in Ukraine during the assault on Pokrovsk.
Since his brother states that he was killed as part of an assault group, his position is unclear.
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— KIU • Russian Officers killed in Ukraine (@killedinukraine.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 10:36 AM
I’d guess that there are two kinds of heart attacks in Russia — the regular kind and the kind that hits you when the FSB is taking you into custody on the 20th floor and you glance at the open window and suddenly realize how fucked you actually are.
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‼️ Russia: “A Russian official died suddenly while on vacation in Egypt.”
👉 Vladimir Shabarov, former head of the district management and public works department of the Vyborg district administration in St. Petersburg
“Heart attack”
www.mk.ru/incident/202...
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— Prune60 (@prune602.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
That’s a whole lot of scrap metal.
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Russia’s army has suffered record vehicle losses in 2025. According to Ukraine’s General Staff, 32,681 trucks, tankers, and other vehicles have been destroyed so far this year, more than in 2022, 2023, and 2024 combined. Total Russian automotive losses since the full-scale invasion now exceed 65,000
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) October 24, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Just a few days ago Orban was the apple of Trump’s eye and Hungary was basking in the prestige of hosting a Russia/Ukraine peace conference.
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Hungary working on how to circumvent US sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, PM Orban says. MOL refineries process 14.2 million tons of Russian crude annually via Druzhba pipeline.
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 8:58 AM
There was a comment several days ago asking if there is a list of oil refineries hit by Ukraine.
Here’s one:
Regular power has been restored to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
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"The only way to ensure long-term nuclear safety is complete demilitarization, deoccupation of the Zaporizhzhia power plant, and its return to the full legal control of the Ukrainian operator, Energoatom," says Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk.
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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) October 24, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Fiber-optic cable glistening in the sunlight.
Rest in peace.
Mickey says, “Slava Ukraini mf-ers.”
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1/ Russian soldiers face swarms of Ukrainian mice in their dugouts, which eat absolutely everything they can reach. Russian warblogger Platon Mamatov complains:
"People who haven't fought think mice are cute. Nothing of the sort. Mickey Mouse is a natural disaster."
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) October 24, 2025 at 3:04 AM
2/ "They eat everything, from coils to drones and canned food to socks. Even an ATV has been gnawed on from every side."
Audio on.
Keep the audio on. 🕺
All dogs matter.
