Ukraine daily update October 29, 2025

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When all eyes are on Pokrovsk, Russia is well on its way to neutralize the area east of Kupiansk and the city of Kupiansk.

According to my post last Friday, Lyman, Siversk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovsk, Pokrovske, and Stepnohirsk do not look better, and in Lyman, things are moving (backwards) fast.

Ukraine will never be able to retake this area by force, the only way to regain the territory is if Russia leaves all occupied areas and goes home.

What is Europe’s plan here since everyone in Europe says that Ukraine should have a “just peace”?

How – a just peace is surely to regain Luhansk, do you think Europe is planning to recapture Luhansk for Ukraine?

I guess many leaders in Europe don’t have a plan, but they believe that a ceasefire is a first step in the right direction – once we get there, the rest will be resolved, kind of.

Since Ukraine is now retreating everywhere and is about to lose several dominant terrain sections – what do we think will happen next?

Will they continue to retreat, and if so, how far?

As Russia now enjoys China’s digital battlefield, which is evidently putting Ukraine under intense pressure – is this digital capability, by Russian standards, a rather luxurious ability on the rise or on the decline?

According to MXT daily reports, the FPV drones have increased by a thousand per day in recent months, and according to UA reports, there is a lot of loitering ammunition in the air now, which are autonomous “attack drones” – both are bad.

If the digital battlefield and China’s kill-chain are working now – is the latter also working?

A month ago, I wrote something like “Pokrovsk will fall in the future” and received a lot of pushback, including Kenneth Gregg’s post that his battalion in Myrnohrad was doing well.

Kenneth Gregg is silent today, isn’t he?

In Kupiansk, the Ukrainian mechanized counterattacks failed, and the town has actually fallen.

At Pokrovsk, UA has been engaged in a month-long battle around the Russian breakthrough northeast of Pokrovsk, and it is still ongoing.

We who are pro-Ukraine have a bias and do not want to talk about setbacks, but the situation at the fronts does not look good at all.

It is so bad that France is probably starting to consider sending in the Foreign Legion if necessary.

The reason MUST be that China is handling the RU digital battlefield and kill-chain because RU ground forces are horse-drawn artillery with hepatitis and turtle tanks, mixed with a bit of scooter shooting and crutch shooting.

One or two crutch shooters have been seen attacking across the fields as well, without crutches.

Not many discuss this split, and we get stuck in the idea that the Russian military is close to collapse – it is probably not a very fun collection today apart from the priority units and just as poorly as we hear.

First of all, RU is holding back mechanized units, but so is Ukraine.

But above the violent offensives of crutch and crutch shooters, thousands of drones hover, and a Chinese eye behind large bottle-bottom glasses sees everything that moves – nothing escapes the little multitasking Chinese.

The latest technology meets Tannenberg, but Ukraine cannot combat these Chinese multitasking bottle-bottom glasses, only the crutch shooters.

We will look at what is happening in action, and Ukraine is currently retreating everywhere.

This recently flew by about some planned Russian coup – could that have been what made Ukraine so positive earlier?

We can assume they are trying this, and the candidate presented is likely.

Now we have a pretty big event around the corner, and that is the Trump – Xi meeting.

The tip seems to be that there will be a trade deal – the USA says that China has given in, and China says that the USA has given in, so both can declare themselves winners forever.

The only way for Europe to achieve peace is if China stops supporting Russia, and they will only do that if forced – a trade deal is not exactly coercive.

The only way to get Russia to stop killing children is if they cannot continue because they have no ammunition, and they will have it until China stops supplying them.

How does China’s digital battlefield fare against UA qualified mechanized forces?

UA failed in Kupiansk, and a couple of counterattacks northeast of Pokrovsk have failed with significant losses – do you think it was the crutch shooters or the crutch shooters who found their inner Viking and an extra magazine?

Or a little Chinese with bottle-bottom glasses who has a whole palette of indirect capabilities and sees everything that moves?

So how does Ukraine stop Russia?

When the area east of Oskil is cleared of the Russian bastards, a lot of Russian brigades are released to engage in other activities.

I don’t think Ukraine will be able to stop Russia as long as China can operate their digital battlefield. Rather, the pressure on the frontline units will increase.

USA and Trump, you can try to figure out – Venezuela is to be leveled, and Russia is bringing in LV and anti-ship missiles there because China is supporting them.

Venezuela is a problem for the USA because China has entered the country – do you need more evidence than Maduro standing at the podium showing off his new Huawei phone that he urged everyone to buy.

So the USA is trying to kill two birds with one stone – overthrow Maduro and install a USA-friendly figure who gives them first dibs on the oil.

But in Ukraine, RU should be treated with kid gloves – a very big difference and not consistent at all.

USA is economically pressuring China, but there will be a trade deal.

The only thing that has really happened here is that Ukraine has stopped caring about what the USA/Trump says about the war.

Probably Europe has also stopped listening to the USA – Trump probably did not approve of the French buildup with troops.

If Ukraine had the drive in offensives that we see from RU, we would say that they were on their way to winning the war.

RU’s offensive is not diminishing, and UA says they will increase the pace in the future – RU has more gas, and they have had a sustained offensive since the fall of 2023.

How do we break the trend – that is the question all European leaders are asking themselves right now?

Or is war fatigue spreading, and our leaders are either eager for a ceasefire and eternal peace or are preoccupied with domestic politics?

Or are they like Kier Starmer on their way out and have other things to think about – a “lame duck” period?

We know that Ukraine will fight on until the last FPV drone, but there is a risk that we will actually get there if Europe does not start making some tough decisions.

The Foreign Legion is a step in the right direction – Macron can be trusted a bit.

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92 thoughts on “Ukraine daily update October 29, 2025”

  1. maggan

    Let’s hope that Macron’s ‘wife’ stays calm. Feels high risk that she or some gang shoots an internal torpedo into Macron’s warmongering against the peaceful ryzars.

  2. MXT

    Russian losses in the war in Ukraine 2025-10-29:

    • 1150 KIA
    • 4 Tanks
    • 3 AFVs
    • 20 Artillery systems
    • 1 MLRS
    • 313 UAVs
    • 79 Vehicles & Fuel tanks
    • 2 Special equipment
  4. MXT

    If China tightens control over the export of chemicals used to produce fentanyl, the United States is expected to halve the so-called fentanyl tariffs to 10 percent, sources told the Wall Street Journal ahead of Thursday’s meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea.

    China is expected to agree to the demands, but a deal depends on how the talks progress, according to the newspaper.

    A 10 percent reduction would result in Chinese tariffs of around 45 percent. This level is closer to other trading partners and could make China’s goods more attractive to buyers in the United States, WSJ writes.

  5. MXT

    “The Central Bank of Russia has predicted that, in the event of tougher sanctions and a drop in oil prices to $35 per barrel, Russia could face its worst economic downturn since the 1990s. As of now, this remains just a scenario for Russia, not probability.

    Economic pressure on Russia is extremely important. For the first time since the mid-1990s, the Russian economy could shrink for two consecutive years, with inflation surging to a ten-year high, forcing households to drastically cut consumption and businesses to slash investment.”
    https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3m4cuhycbck2l

  7. MXT

    Donald Trump may talk to China’s Xi Jinping about Nvidia’s superchip Blackwell when the two leaders meet tomorrow. He said this aboard Air Force One on his way to South Korea, Reuters reports.

    The sale of the advanced AI chips has been a key sticking point in the protracted trade negotiations between the countries. The US has an export ban on the chips to China, citing that they could be used for military purposes. Trump called Blackwell a “super duper chip” and added that he is “very optimistic” about the meeting with Xi.

  8. 205

    En lägre aktivitet senaste dygnet sedan den dygnet innan rekordartade aktiviteten i Pokrovsk med omnejd, där Pokrovsk gick från ett enormt till ett knappt mycket kraftigt tryck. En sänkning i övrigt längs hela fronten, utom i Lyman där aktiviteten ökade från knappt märkbar till märkbar. Fördelningen av 143 av de av AFU 148 rapporterade stridshandlingarna enligt nedan.

    N Slobozhansky-Kursk 2↘️
    S Slobozhansky 5↘️
    Kupyansk 8
    Lyman 13💥↗️ 🗺️
    Slovyansk 10💥
    Kramatorsk 2
    Kostjantynivka 18💥↘️
    Pokrovsk 45💥💥💥↘️↘️
    Oleksandrivskij 23💥↘️
    Huliaypillia 7
    Orikhivsk 7
    Prydniprovskij/Dnipro 3

    The aggressor carried out air strikes, in particular on the areas of the settlements of Dnipro, Novooleksandrivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region; Rivnopillia, Zaliznychne, Uspenivka, Bilohiria, Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region.

    Over the past day, the aviation, missile forces, and artillery of the Defense Forces struck six areas where personnel, weapons, and military equipment were concentrated, as well as three enemy artillery systems.

    Two combat engagements took place in the North Slobozhansky and Kursk directions over the past day. The enemy carried out nine air strikes, dropping 25 guided aerial bombs, and carried out 174 shelling attacks, including 10 from multiple launch rocket systems.

    In the South Slobozhanskyi direction, the enemy attacked the positions of Ukrainian defenders near Vovchansk and Kamianka five times.

    Eight combat engagements took place yesterday in the Kupiansk direction. Our defenders stopped the enemy’s assault in the area of the settlement of Pishchane and in the direction of Shyikivka.

    In the Lyman direction, the enemy attacked 13 times, trying to break through our defenses in the areas of the settlements of Zelenyi Hai, Derylove, Novoselivka, and in the direction of the settlements of Korovii Yar, Drobysheve, and Oleksandrivka.

    In the Sloviansk direction, the Defense Forces stopped 10 offensive actions by the invaders in the areas of the settlements of Yampil, Dronivka, Serebryanka, and Hryhorivka.

    In the Kramatorsk direction, two clashes were recorded, with enemy units attempting to advance in the direction of Virolyubivka and Fedorivka.

    In the Kostyantynivka direction, the enemy carried out 18 attacks in the areas of Kostyantynivka, Shcherbinivka, Rusyn Yar, Yablunivka, Stepanivka, and Sofiivka.

    In the Pokrovsk direction, our defenders stopped 45 assaults by the aggressor in the areas of the settlements of Shakhov, Novoye Shakhov, Chervonyi Lyman, Rodynske, Novoeekonomichne, Lisivka, Novopavlivka, Pokrovsk, Myrolyubivka, Myrnohrad, Zvirove, Kotlyne, Udachne, Molodetsk, Dachne, and Filiya.

    In the Oleksandrivka direction, the enemy carried out 23 attacks yesterday in the areas of the settlements of Zelenyi Hai, Sosnivka, Verbove, Uspenivka, Novohryhorivka, Rybne, Pavlivka, and Vyshneve.

    In the Huliaipole direction, our defenders stopped seven enemy attempts to advance in the areas of Novomykolaivka and Luhivske.

    In the Orikhiv direction, Ukrainian units stopped seven enemy attacks on the positions of our troops in the areas of the settlements of Shcherbaky, Stepove, and in the direction of Novoandriivka and Novodanilivka.

    In the Prydniprovsk direction, the enemy attacked the positions of our defenders three times in the direction of the Antonivsky Bridge, but was unsuccessful.

    In the Volyn and Polissya directions, no signs of the formation of offensive groups by the aggressor were detected.

  11. 205

    Russian troops outnumber Ukraine 8-1 in the Pokrovsk sector, “Imagine how many Russian forces are there. But at the same time, they have not achieved the planned result,” Zelensky told reporters on October 27th.

  12. MXT

    👍

    I agree 100% that it would be good if we could stop China’s support to Russia, if they stopped delivering drones, etc. and stopped buying oil, Russia’s economy and capability would decrease drastically.

    However, I unfortunately think we will have a hard time succeeding with that and wonder how it will be possible.

    If the USA and EU had joined forces, we might have had a chance, but the USA under Trump is not Europe’s (when it comes to trade) or Ukraine’s friend when it comes to defeating Russia, and any trade agreements will be based on the best interests of the USA and Trump.

    If Xi is smart, he could offer Trump to buy a few billion Trump coins, maybe give him a luxury yacht, and promise that the wealthy Chinese living in the USA will also buy Trump coins and large amounts of DJT shares…

    Of course, there is a chance that Trump could get China to buy expensive oil from the USA instead of buying it from Russia. That would be a win for Ukraine, but it doesn’t mean that China is defeated by it.

    He probably won’t care about the Chinese export of drones and other equipment that the Russians need, there is no upside for him there. The USA does not manufacture FPV drones.

    —

    Yes, Kupiansk has been in bad shape for a long time, and it seems to be only a matter of time before the entire Russian front reaches the Oskil River. Then they can take a break as you write and free up forces for other areas.

    Something else that most people seem to ignore is how the front is changing southwest of Pokrovsk (towards Pokrovske). There, the Russians are advancing every day, taking large areas, and if they continue, they will soon reach the highway.

    So, they have crossed the border here, and soon they will declare another oblast as Russian.

    Europe and the USA allow it to happen.

    1. DJ

      What can be done, however, that is a bit offensive, is a sea blockade against China. Then they will suffer greatly due to food shortages and economic catastrophe because of lack of exports. In that case, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines must be on board. It would be lively, of course, but if that’s the only option for the USA, maybe that’s where we’ll end up? Alternatively, the USA could retreat to its cocoon between two oceans and focus on its domestic market in the shadow of a world dominated by China.

    1. MXT

      “The USA is set to reduce the number of soldiers stationed on NATO’s eastern flank, reports AFP.

      According to NATO, the alliance was already informed about the decision. The US action is described as an “adjustment”.

      “Even with this adjustment, the American military presence in Europe remains larger than it has been in many years, with significantly more American forces on the continent than before 2022,” a NATO official said.

      Poland’s Minister of Defense said at a press conference that he has not been informed about the possibility of reducing the number of troops deployed in Poland, reports Reuters.”
      https://omni.se/usa-minskar-antalet-soldater-i-osteuropa/a/eM2LzM

  14. MXT

    💥🔥✊👍
    “Overnight, an explosion and fire were reported at the “Novobryanskaya” 750kV substation in Vygonichi, Bryansk region. Prior to the attack, a drone threat was declared.”

  15. MXT

    💥🔥✊👍

    “⚡️Ukrainian drones strike 2 oil depots in Russian-occupied Crimea, media reports. Ukrainian drones targeted oil depots in the city of Simferopol and the village of Hvardiiske in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight on Oct. 29, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel reported.”
    https://bsky.app/profile/kyivindependent.com/post/3m4d2uydtk22x
    https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-drones-strike-2-oil-depots-in-russian-occupied-crimea-media-reports/

    2. MXT

      “Drone strikes hit two oil depots in occupied Crimea on 29 October — Crimean Wind. Fires erupted at an oil facility in Simferopol and Hvardiiske. Both facilities supply fuel to Russian forces, with military tankers spotted moving in and out of the Simferopol depot just a day before the strike.

      The Hvardiiske depot, which belongs to ATAN—Crimea’s largest gas station network—was already attacked on 17 October, when fires burned for several days and destroyed at least five large fuel tanks.”

      https://bsky.app/profile/euromaidanpress.bsky.social/post/3m4d23i4pcg2n

  17. MXT

    Maybe one should not completely give up hope?
    A bit strange that he is considering supplying weapons from other countries? What was he thinking there?

    “❗️US Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker stated that Donald Trump continues to consider the issue of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine or the possibility of transferring long-range weapons from other countries.”
    https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3m4d2dxw2hs24

    1. Analytikern

      Europe is primarily Europe’s problem. If the USA has now slowed down technology that is American, it’s probably about releasing that brake? Lex JAS? So, open up for Taurus or other long-range options that would be good, but on Europe’s own budget and without eroding layers of what the USA themselves might need in large quantities, in other parts of the world.

  19. MXT

    “Trump’s politics create unprecedented opportunities for Xi Jinping

    Donald Trump and China are hot topics on both Dagens Nyheter’s and Expressen’s editorial pages.

    DN writes that the American president’s policies in the long run create unprecedented opportunities for Xi Jinping’s regime. Historically, the USA has had economic and military strength, alliances spanning the globe, and a political model that has attracted people worldwide.

    “All of this is what Donald Trump is challenging. Of course, Xi Jinping can live with that.”

    Expressen’s Ylva Nilsson writes that the major trade war between the countries is underway, but Europe seemingly has no plan for the EU’s position. She writes that EU leaders have been going to China for business all autumn.

    “To sit passively in the EU but play the national card in hopes of a better outcome is also a kind of tactic.””

    2. CB500four

      If the USA reduces its presence in Asia, China will of course expand. Trump is not particularly interested in the USA having bases around the world, and I’m pretty sure that Trump would be happy to let China be at peace on its side of the Pacific, if they just buy some Trumpcoin and agree to balance the trade between the countries.

    3. DJ

      Europe should make a major investment in economic relations with Vietnam, which has better demographics than China and in many ways similar industrial capacity. And of course, well-chosen countries in Africa with 4 children per woman and many decades ahead with a young working-age population. We can endure a downturn for up to 10 years. Chinese labor is likely to become very expensive in just 10 years.

  20. MXT

    The GPS disruptions on Gotland have increased significantly in recent years, reports TV4 News. In 2023, 55 incidents were reported. So far this year, there have been 860 cases. This is an increase of 1,400 percent.

    Alf Söderman, defense director at the Gotland County Administrative Board, points to Russia.

    – Everything indicates that the signals are coming from the Kaliningrad or St. Petersburg area, that is, Russia, he says.

    The GPS disruptions affect critical functions such as ambulances, maritime navigation, aviation, and agriculture.

    Söderman says that Gotland is now working to reduce vulnerability by developing alternative solutions for when GPS precision is lost.

  22. MXT

    “SBU strike drones destroyed a Russian Pantsir-S2 air defense system, two radar stations, and hit two oil depots in occupied Crimea, sources in the Security Service of Ukraine told Ukrainian media.”

  23. MXT

    “Ryssarna hängde sin flagga vid en av ingångarna till Pokrovsk. Som tidigare nämnts är striderna inne i staden mycket intensiva. Ryssarna kontrollerar de flesta ingångsvägarna med FPV-droner vilket gör logistiken mycket svår. Situationen ser inte särskilt bra ut.”

  24. MXT

    Off-Topic, Dutch elections

    The USA has a few parties with only two having a chance, but on the other hand, I think the Netherlands has gone to the other extreme with its 27.

    “The Dutch polling stations have opened and voters now have to decide which of the 27 parties they want to govern the country, writes The Guardian.

    Since the Dutch electoral system is entirely proportional, it is enough to get 0.67 percent of the votes to secure a mandate, and a party for citizens over 50, an animal rights party, and a single-issue party advocating for universal basic income all have real chances of entering parliament.

    Three parties are neck and neck in the polls: the far-right party PVV with Geert, the left alliance GL/PvdA, and the liberal D66 are expected to each get 23 seats, according to Politico.”
    https://omni.se/vallokalerna-har-oppnat-27-partier-att-valja-pa/a/yELjQK

    1. DJ

      With 27 parties, each party has over 67 million possible forms of cooperation to consider (each of the other 26 parties can either be a party to cooperate with or not, so it becomes 2^26 = 67,108,864). Each constellation must be considered separately because it has its own internal tensions 🙂

       

    1. Proxima

      I think Ukraine is acting like the adult in the room. I consider the Ukrainians to conduct an intelligent warfare where the goal is to save as many soldier’s lives as possible. There will be a life after the war and then every man will be needed to rebuild the country. Ukraine has decided to win the war and they will succeed. Peace will come when the Russian people stand in the way. Not on the battlefield. Ukraine is tired of the USA, NATO, and the EU and they will handle it themselves. Admittedly with material help from Europe. Speaking of which. Soon you won’t be able to walk upright in this city. More griffins came in for landing and there is no squadron here…

  28. MXT

    Off-Topic, Israel – Palestine

    Ceasefire or truce and how long until next time?

    “After the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which began on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday morning, the IDF reports that the ceasefire has now resumed, several media outlets report.

    At least 104 people have been killed in the attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, Reuters reports.

    The attacks were ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israeli military personnel were fired upon in southern Gaza on Tuesday. Israel has accused Hamas of being behind the attack, which Hamas denied involvement in and stated that they had nothing to do with the shootings, Haaretz writes.”
    https://omni.se/efter-dodliga-attackerna-vapenvilan-ar-igang-igen/a/3Ml3r0

    1. CB500four

      None of the parties, neither Hamas nor Netanyahu, want a ceasefire, unfortunately. Netanyahu wants to eradicate Hamas, he doesn’t care about any dead civilians. Hamas doesn’t care about dead civilians either, it just fuels the hatred towards Israel.

  29. Umlaut

    That the Foreign Legion (hopefully) is getting involved is a good sign, but what are they really going to do in this trench warfare? Where the West should have intervened, and still has a technological advantage, it’s in air forces and precision missiles. I fear that deploying 2000 legionnaires is just a step in the West’s slow and fruitless “escalation.” By constantly only sending the outdated or absolutely necessary, the Russians, admittedly at the cost of many lives but lives are cheap in Russia, have been able to adapt and overcome. I understand, it’s politically difficult to send off children and spouses of voters to risk their lives in another country, but the fact that we haven’t even established a no-fly zone in western Ukraine, or border patrols against Belarus, shows that we are not serious.

    1. MXT

      I agree with you, it doesn’t feel like we are taking it seriously.

      The legionnaires should probably start taking a Ukrainian basic course in modern warfare, then maybe it’s best to deploy them at the border with Belarus so they can liberate Ukrainian soldiers.

      Still good if it actually happens, a small step in the right direction. Perhaps it can unlock so that more countries allow their military personnel who want to go to Ukraine to do so without risking losing their jobs when they return home.

      1. Umlaut

        We do not dare, but countries with a professional military should have dared to take over the relatively safe tasks such as securing the border against Belarus at least six months into the war. Likewise, NATO should have started shooting down robots in western Ukraine that theoretically threaten NATO countries, of course coordinated with Ukraine. Shooting them down could have been done without the platforms even being in Ukrainian airspace/territory = minimal escalation.

  30. MXT

    “Ukrainian partisans blew up railway tracks in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast as a Russian military train was passing through. Result: The explosion derailed a locomotive, ten wagons, and one cover platform, completely stopping rail traffic on the section.

    Ukrainian resistance fighters have been systematically targeting Russian supply routes bringing ammunition and equipment to the front.”
    https://bsky.app/profile/euromaidanpress.bsky.social/post/3m4dbvmhbtx2i

  34. MXT

    “Nearly 27,000 households in Odesa Oblast woke up without electricity after Russian drones struck a major energy facility overnight.

    ♦️126 drones launched across Ukraine
    ♦️DTEK energy facility hit
    ♦️One energy worker injured
    ♦️26,900 consumers remain without power as temperatures drop
    ♦️Critical facilities like hospitals are running on generators
    ♦️Repair teams work to restore the grid.”

  35. johan No.1

    That many European leaders have been in China during 2025 to distance themselves from the EU and the USA is EXTREMELY bad.

    Against China, we only get one chance and now their dollar-killer started with purchases in yuan.

    Finance has no borders so if it works, EUR will be hit just as hard as USD.

    Moreover, China is also stopping exports to Europe, not just the USA.

    Damn knows where this will end, but there are plenty of examples of countries going down, and right now Europe seems determined to sink themselves.

    1. CB500four

      When it comes to dividing Europe, the USA and China are on the same page. Europe’s countries compete with each other for their swing seat.

    2. DJ

      It can be good to watch videos like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyHSFZ4fIh4 that shows how the top list of the world’s economies has shifted over a few hundred years. There are many videos of this kind, and it’s almost hypnotic to sit and watch how different empires have risen and fallen.

      It becomes clear that when you zoom out a bit, change is to be expected…

  36. 205

    The enemy is not in Myrnohrad: the military made an important clarification and spoke about the situation

    The command of the “East” group of troops has issued an important clarification regarding the situation in Myrnohrad, Donetsk region. The military assured that as of October 29, there are no Russian occupation forces in this settlement.

    It was also noted that the situation in Myrnohrad and its surroundings is fully controlled by the Ukrainian defense forces.

    “The enemy is not in Myrnohrad. The situation in the city and its surroundings is fully controlled by the Ukrainian defense forces.

    The spokesperson for the “East” group of troops (forces) mistakenly referred to the situation in Pokrovsk in yesterday’s comment on the National Telethon.

    – Please take this information into account in further coverage of events in the combat zones,” the statement reads.

    Details
    war.obozrevatel.com/ukr/vorog-ne-p…

    1. johan No.1

      What a misspelling in an official report 😐  

      I like that the deep state and project owl have integrity and report the actual situation.

      It is in the mindset of front-line managers to try to downplay the negative, but they receive information from the soldiers and update.

      Have probably been of great help to the leadership those two.

  37. MXT

    Off-Topic

    “During the first half of this year, the Trump family made over 800 million dollars from the sale of crypto assets. This is almost as much as all of their other business activities generated during the same period, Reuters reports. The revenues mainly come from the sale of crypto tokens linked to their companies World Liberty Financial and Trump’s own meme currency. This follows Eric and Donald Jr. Trump’s international investment tours, where, among others, the Abu Dhabi-based fund Aqua1 has invested, according to the news agency’s investigation. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University, argues that investors are primarily attracted to the family for political reasons rather than the technology. – They are not investing because of the brothers’ skills. They do it because they want to buy themselves freedom from legal restrictions and impunity that only the president can provide, she says.”

    https://omni.se/a/93j1lp

  38. MXT

    “❗️The 🇺🇦Artan special unit of the Main Directorate of Ukraine storms 🇷🇺Russian positions and takes a prisoner in the Lymansk direction”

    1. 205

      Interesting about Ukrainian drone air superiority. Tried to see if it was possible to determine which front Found nothing exact that matched approximately located around Lyman. The reason for the question is if the front belonged to a lower priority. Pokrovsk is a priority.

       

      Also interesting your post yesterday from Gregg about expanding the gray zone around Pokrovsk and around the entire Crimea. Regarding Pokrovsk, however, I did not see Gregg confirm the counteroffensive visible on DeepState. But I may have read carelessly.

  40. jahojariaho

    Just saw a video where the Russians placed a flag on Pokrovsk using a drone! Propaganda!
    “Russians put their flag on “Pokrovsk” sign with the help of the drone and it was already kaboomed with help from a drone”

  41. 205

    ✍️ Ukrainan to English, Lew Anno Support

    Images, links, source 🧵:
    https://x.com/anno1540/status/1983539845826814290?s=46

    Russian military personnel have been reporting summary executions since the first year of their invasion of Ukraine. Back then, soldiers were shot on the spot verstka.media/vnesudebnie_ra… for refusing to storm a fortress or for drinking in the trenches.

    By 2025, executions and torture in the army had become more sophisticated, increasingly driven by personal feuds between soldiers and commanders and refusal to pay quitrent to their superiors.

    (The names and call signs of some characters in the text have been changed for security reasons.)

    “A boy from my platoon was simply beaten to death on the floor.

    Because he was drinking vodka after a combat mission. – So, we spent a month at the front without communication, without food, and almost all 200 of us (were killed).” ×or 300 (wounded) ×”We drank water from puddles, fucking, slept in water and shit.

    And then we went out to rest, all grown men, well, drank a little, and they started scolding us like some kind of puppies.

    – Well, the kid went nuts.”

    Then, as a soldier with the call sign “Kurgan” tells Verstka, commanders “Kemer” and “Dudka” began beating his comrade and smashed his head against a concrete slab.

    Then they threw him into a pit. “He was already dying there, something was leaking from his head, foam was coming out of his mouth, he was convulsing. “Shark” then told them to shoot him,” Kurgan says.

    “Akula” is 34-year-old Ilkhom Peter, a resident of the Orenburg region. He commands the assault troops of the 80th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division of the Center Group.

    “Kemer” is 34-year-old Dmitry Kemerov, who commands Assault Company “B.”

    “Dudka” is 42-year-old deputy company commander Mikhail Dudukov.

    The assault company is primarily made up of former prisoners and so-called “screw-ups,” explains Kurgan. He managed to leave the army after being wounded, and so he’s willing to talk about the “zeroers.”

    The assault company is primarily made up of former prisoners and so-called “screw-ups,” explains Kurgan. He managed to leave the army after being wounded, and so he’s willing to talk about the “zeroers.”

    – All the executioners are in our files.

    Two other Verstka interviewees from the same regiment are in the hospital and also expect to be discharged. They hope they won’t be returned to the front. Those fighting on the front lines are afraid to speak out. Because voicing dissatisfaction or complaining to their families or the military prosecutor’s office can lead to their service records being reset.

    The military personnel Verstka spoke with say that zeroing out isn’t limited to direct assassinations. A popular way to get rid of a troublesome soldier is to send them on an assault where survival is nearly impossible , verstka.media/bezhavshih-s-f… often without body armor or weapons.

    This type of “zeroing out” is common in many units of the Ministry of Defense. For example, in the 114th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (114 SMRB)—a new unit of the Russian army that traces its origins to the Donetsk separatist “Vostok” battalion. Since the outbreak of full-scale war, the brigade has participated, among other things, in the battles for Avdiivka and the Avdiivka Coke Plant.

    Currently, according to the Deep State portal, the brigade is located near the villages of Suvorovo and Nikanorovka, the capture of which the Ministry of Defense reported in August of this year.

    One of the brigade’s commanders is Hero of Russia and Hero of the “DPR,” Colonel Igor Istratiy, call sign “Said.”

    Military personnel describe this notorious commander as personally ordering executions and encouraging torture.

    “Said” finds it easiest to eliminate those who have fallen out of favor during attacks.”

    Yuri, who served in the 114th Brigade, recounts how they were sent into assaults without weapons or equipment, and “Said” insisted that the soldiers should “obtain everything they needed in battle.”

    “Just so you understand, we went against two or three platoons with four magazines of 120 rounds each,” recalls a source in Verstka.

    “And they met us with tanks and Grads (multiple launch rocket systems) .” ×, “bumblebees” (rocket flamethrower) ×”RPG.

    That first battle in the winter of 2023, when we were just entering Krasnogorovka, there were 47 of us. Of those, five made it down into the village itself. Three minutes of fighting.”

    “You know, there’s such a mess there that… You never know who’s going to shoot you: – your own people or the crests,” says serviceman Dmitry from the same brigade.

    – Execution for refusing to storm

    One could try to abandon the suicidal assault, but in that case, according to the military, death would occur in one’s own trenches.

    For example, mobilized Alexey talks about the second motorized rifle battalion of the seventh brigade. One of the commanders in this unit goes by the call sign “Sumrak.”

    He had a specially trained person for zeroing out, the soldier says. When the assault began, he was supposed to “raise ten men and send them forward” on command.

    Those who refused—”Well, seeing everything that’s going on there… You won’t really reach these positions because you’ll just be blown away by drones.

    That’s why they refuse”—Sumrak’s subordinate shot them point-blank with an automatic rifle. “Then the body was simply taken, since the Seversky Donets River was nearby.

    They were simply thrown into the river wearing a bulletproof vest, so they wouldn’t float, or they were buried somewhere.

    – That’s the simplest of zeroing out.”

    This was also the case during the assault on the village of Orekhovoe in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which took several months to capture. The military calls the fighting for it suicidal. A stormtrooper with the call sign “Fix” from the 80th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division of the Center group in June 2025 refused a mission to “expose firing positions” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces without a bulletproof vest or weapons.

    This role is called a “beacon” in the military—a soldier is used as bait, sent forward to provoke the enemy to open fire and thus learn their exact location.

    “You’re just running one way, with a blocking detachment behind you, preventing you from going back.

    After hearing “Fix” refuse to act as a “beacon,” the commander of Assault Company “B” in “Kemer” ordered him to be beaten.

    Two of his fellow soldiers from the 80th Regiment told Verstka this. The torture was filmed: – they beat him with their hands, sticks, and a stun gun.

    “Yes, it’s “Fix” on the video. It was “Kemer”‘s men who beat him half to death, and then he shot him.

    They buried him in a forest belt,” his fellow soldier, call sign “Kurgan,” told Verstka.

    His family was told that the man had allegedly left his unit without permission.

    As Alexey, a mobilized soldier, recounts, his brigade has a territorial defense battalion (12th BTRO), and within it, a commander with the call sign “Bely.” Anyone who refused a combat mission or otherwise messed up was sent to him:

    – “A soldier went on a drinking binge, or ran away, ran away for a couple of days, maybe ran off to see his girlfriend.”

    For such people, “Bely,” according to a source speaking to Verstka, had two snipers with “a designated spot among the trees.”

    No one saw them, but they saw one of the men turn and run back during the assault. Then, his own men shot him. Alexey says that in 2023, “Bely” commander’s snipers killed twenty of his comrades, and in 2024, 40. Verstka has not yet been able to confirm these figures with a second source.

    “Zeroing” with the help of drones In some other units, assault and motorized rifle units, where there are many “screw-ups” or “offenders,” drones are used instead of blocking detachments and snipers to finish off soldiers.

    This is a less common method of finishing off soldiers than execution or torture to death.

    “In the Airborne Forces, I’ve never even heard of our own being finished off!!!!

    That our drone pilots would waste their FPV on their own! COMPLETE NONSENSE,” one contract soldier protested indignantly at Verstka’s question.

    But other military personnel, not from the elite paratrooper or reconnaissance regiments, say this is happening.

    For example, speaking about the 139th Separate Assault Battalion and its former commander, 35-year-old Colonel Kurabek Karayev, call sign “Kurort,” Verstka’s sources claim he used drones to assassinate his fellow soldiers.

    “I saw guys being pushed forward, just like, I don’t give a damn.

    – If you don’t move, they’ll kill you. – If you hide somewhere, a bird will kill you, fuck your own people.

    They’ll track you down and beat you up. Those are the orders they give,” Vladimir Oskolkov, a contract soldier from the 139th Assault Battalion, complains about a video of reprisals on the battlefield.

    He passed on the videos, recorded on the front lines, to his sister and complained about his conditions to the Berdyansk military commandant’s office. After the publicity, Oskolkov was taken away to an unknown location.

    Another soldier, who recently transferred from the same 139th Assault Battalion, confirms to Verstka that his commander ordered drone operators to drop grenades on their fellow soldiers:

    – “There were combat missions like assaulting forested areas—and the order was to wipe out our own if they couldn’t get out.”

    Those who didn’t do this were also wiped out, finished off with grenades. The drone operators were intimidated; they stood at gunpoint.”

    His fellow soldier also spoke about the killings of Russian soldiers by Russian drones in a video message to Vladimir Putin, which he recorded in May 2025, while in the rear.

    “I was forced to tell you the truth. When Karaev was commander of the 139th Battalion, he, along with his deputy, call sign ‘Wolf,’ and the chief of staff, call sign ‘Mark,’ issued orders to finish off our wounded soldiers with airdrops.

    Literally, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Initially, he told the ordinary soldiers to do this, which they, naturally, refused. Then Karaev, ‘Mark,’ and ‘Wolf’ took on the task of finishing off our soldiers themselves.”

    Former prisoners who became contract soldiers in 2023 also witnessed drone drops on their own troops.

    Why exactly commanders risk losing UAVs, distracting their operators from combat missions, wasting ammunition, and wiping out their own soldiers in front of many witnesses—the military themselves aren’t sure. !!!

    One popular assumption among Verstka’s interviewees is to prevent a wounded attack aircraft from being captured or hospitalized, where they might reveal too much about what’s happening on the front lines.

    One of the voice messages from a serviceman in the battalion near Kurort, transmitted to Verstka, also mentions the zeroing of the wounded.

    – “I went out with the 139th Battalion under the commander of the Kurort Battalion. He gave orders to finish off 300, and they finished off 300 themselves.

    The order was:

    – if you don’t finish them off, we’ll kill you.

    There were times when those who refused to go into battle were tied to a tree, beaten with a whip, and then locked in a basement to bleed to death.”

    -“Torture to death”…….

    The military also considers torture in pits and basements to be a form of “zeroing out”—because it most often ends in the victim’s death.

    Mobilized soldier Alexei recalls how fellow soldiers who had gotten drunk after returning to the rear after three or four months in combat positions were sent to the pits.

    – “We called it a banya: wash up there, get yourself ready for a day. And during that day, naturally, the man would find alcohol, get completely drunk, and then the next day he had to go back, and he was completely out of it. So, he was sent to the pit in handcuffs.”

    The pit was two meters deep and wide, and a grate was placed on top. Then they’d drive up a Kamaz truck with a barrel of water for the soldiers, and fill the pit up to the grate.

    “So the man was just, like a fish, trying to gulp air through the grate. That’s how the commanders tortured him.”

    These punished soldiers died gradually:.m – they were pulled out alive, but after several hours in the cold water, “you naturally get pneumonia, you get kidney swelling, and all that entails.”

    “If he’s lucky, he’ll go to the hospital. It depended on the commander, what mood he was in.

    If he’s unlucky, he’ll go back to his positions. So, what kind of medical care is there at the positions?

    Besides bandages and promedol, there’s nothing.

    So, he’ll simply die there from pulmonary edema or kidney failure.”

    People not only sit in the pits, but also kill each other.

    This is what former soldier Yuri from the 114th Motorized Rifle Brigade tells us.

    “When someone starts asking questions, for example, about their salary, or starts complaining, they’re locked in a pit with bars,” explains Yuri, a soldier in the brigade.

    “They’re not given anything to eat or drink, they’re beaten two, three, or four times a day, every day. They take them out and beat them. And there are a lot of people like that there. Some die in that pit.”

    To conceal this zeroing, the corpse is “simply thrown to the front line and shot through somewhere,” as if it had died in battle, says the soldier. When two or three people remain in the pit, they are told, “Guys, if you want to get out, then fight. Whoever’s left will get out.”

    “Can you imagine, here’s a comrade who was shielding me with his chest, and I have to fight him, I have to beat him up. But I’d rather die myself. Do you understand the situation there?” says Yuri.

    In addition to Yuri’s words, the fighting in the pit was captured on video, which appeared in Ukrainian projects for Russian military personnel in May 2025. Verstka was unable to verify this video, but other soldiers and relatives told journalists about the commander “Kama” mentioned in it.

    “What are you fucking idiots doing? Have you run around so much?” – these are the words that begin the video, which features two soldiers from the 114th Brigade.

    Bare-chested, they are in a hole dug in the ground. The video description states that both soldiers were trapped there because they refused to participate in yet another “meat assault.” A man speaks to them off-camera.

    “Kama, basically, said, ‘Who’s going to beat the shit out of this place?’ ‘Who’s going to beat the shit out of this place?’ ‘Whoever beats the shit out of this place is going to get out of this pit,'” the voiceover continues. After that, the men start fighting. After a few minutes, one wins: “That’s it, he’s moving away…” “And you keep pushing him, for fuck’s sake,” the voiceover encourages. “I’m pushing, I’m pushing,” the soldier replies. And he throws his comrade away, who no longer moves.

    Among other rare methods of resetting the alarm, Verstka’s interlocutors recall being sent into an assault with a grenade inside their body armor—”without the pin, but not with the firing pin down.” “They send you to your positions. If you fall, or you get hit, or any sudden movement—there’s an explosion. But that’s a bizarre thing; I’ve only seen it once, near Chasovy Yar,” says one of the soldiers.

    He also says that those who are undesirable to the commander during the assault can be “tied to a tree and left in the red strip beyond zero” – and then the soldier will be killed not by Defense Ministry personnel, but by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones.

    “I honestly couldn’t even imagine such a thing was possible. It’s 2025, a future war, drones, and our own people are being simply exterminated like cattle. It’s genocide,” Kurgan fumes.

    “Zeroing” for refusal to pay

    Witnesses to executions interviewed by Verstka believe that those who “zero out” are either sadistic commanders or those who see no other way to discipline soldiers. But the main reason is money.

    Commanders who “zero out” their accounts sell the opportunity to avoid assaults, demand bribes, impose extortion, and simply rob their subordinates: – they transfer salaries from contract soldiers’ cards to their own accounts.

    Those who refuse to pay are subject to zero outs in the aforementioned ways.

    For example, relatives of missing soldiers accuse Commander “Kama”—a subordinate of “Said”—of extortion. He is mentioned in a video showing soldiers killing each other on orders. This refers to the same 114th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, based at the separatist “Vostok” Battalion.

    “Kama” is the commander of one of the brigade’s units. Verstka obtained his phone number. It belongs to Ainur Sharifullin, a 38-year-old father of three and a native of Tatarstan. Judging by his public references, he is a military man with extensive service experience. Back in 2016, Sharifullin worked at the Defense Ministry’s District Training Center in the village of Yelan in the Sverdlovsk Region. He corresponded with parents of conscripts on the center’s official VKontakte page.

    Now, the relatives of the soldiers accuse him of “lawlessness, extortion, and sending the wounded on combat missions.” Kama does indeed have a lot of money. So much so that he built himself an apartment in the trenches. One of the participants in a chat about the 114th Brigade posted photos of the dugout where, according to her, “Kama” lived.

    The photos make it look like a new apartment, recently renovated: wallpaper, chandeliers, a separate bedroom, a sofa in the living room, a new stove.

    But in reality, it is a field shelter built in the trenches.

    “This is how comrade ‘Kama’ lives,” writes chat member Alexandra. “Compare it to the dugouts of our regular guys.

    Do you all have heated floors?

    He does in his dugout. He didn’t even have time to install a shower before he left on a combat mission. And there’s a 700,000-ruble motorcycle parked under the shed. It’s just too much, girls.”

    She and several other chat participants declined to speak with journalists. Alexandra later deleted the messages about “Kama” and the published photos.

    Bathhouse for the “Resort” While “Kama” was building an apartment, “Kurort,” whose brigade, on his orders, pointed machine guns at drone operators and waited for them to drop grenades on their wounded comrades, was building a bathhouse in the village of Granitne in the Donetsk region.

    They were buying a television. Perhaps for one of his two apartments in Donetsk, which “Kurort” rents out to supplement his income.

    He also opened two “Voentorg” stores in the city, where, according to a soldier in a video message, he sells humanitarian aid sent to the front by volunteers.

    “Resort,” 35-year-old Kurabek Karaev, was born to a forester and a nurse in the Dagestani village of Mamedkala. . He graduated from the military institute in Penza and, according to him, asked to be transferred “to the infantry” from the missile and artillery service.

    “Kurort” ordered the reset because of money, military personnel familiar with him tell Verstka.

    “If you want a vacation, you pay.

    If he doesn’t chip in, refuses to go on an assault, or gets in the way somewhere, you start digging into him, reporting to his parents, making video or voice recordings, some kind of incriminating evidence—there are many reasons for resetting, girl.

    But it all comes down to money.”

    Many complaints have been filed against Karaev, but according to the military, he remains in command because of the protection of two generals—Andrei Ivanaev and Roman Grekov.

    On June 2, 2025, Vladimir Solovyov’s film about “Kurort” and the military he commands was released. He describes the stormtroopers fighting in Ukraine as “elite.”

    “Have you ever been on assault missions yourself?” Solovyov asks.

    “Yes. We started out that way when I was a battalion commander, from 2022 to 2023. Back in the Izyum direction”

    “Have you changed? In terms of your attitude toward war? ” “Calmer. More self-possessed,” Kurort replies. “War gives you a lot of experience. And you’re developing very quickly.”

    Later in the video, the commander accused of zeroing out the troops discusses how “a person must be motivated to participate in assaults.” “If soldiers refused to pay or participate in brutal assaults (because it’s a stupid way to die), they were either forcibly transported to the front lines, reset, or sent out to face enemy drones and artillery.

    Or they were simply sent in body armor, without a machine gun, without anything, to storm the forested areas,” one of the soldiers who served in the “Resort” brigade told Verstka.

    “If a person isn’t motivated, they won’t produce results on the battlefield,” argues the “Resort” character in Solovyov’s film.

    “We commanders, after the SVO, can already become psychologists.

    When you interact with soldiers, you immediately see who’s capable of what.”

    During the three years of war in Ukraine, “Kurort”, who began fighting as a major, received the rank of lieutenant colonel and colonel ahead of schedule, two Orders of Courage and a medal “For Bravery”.

    They extort money for everything.

    “My wife transferred 60,000,” “I gave him two million,” “They copied the PIN codes from the cards of all the dead and gave them to him.

    And practically everyone died,” are how various soldiers describe the earnings of another commander, “Kemer” of the 80th Tank Regiment, military unit 87441.

    In his company, they extort money under threat of violence for literally everything—to buy equipment, to avoid assaults, to avoid getting stuck in a pit. The scale of the extortion is so great that, according to assault trooper Alexei, one of the commanders was found to have 53 million rubles on his map. According to Kurgan, this could be a military police officer with ties to the regiment’s command.

    All the money is divided between the commander of the “Akula” assault unit and his subordinates, Alexei says.

    “They took it from the guys who took the vehicles, took them away, and resold them to get them out of the pit.”

    Andrei Bykov, who served in the assault company of the 80th Guards Tank Regiment, was killed for refusing to hand over his car on orders from commanders “Dudka” and “Kemer.”

    In February 2025, he was hospitalized after an assault, and when his wound payments arrived on his card , “Kemer” and “Dudka” began extorting half the money.

    Bykov refused to hand over and bought himself a Toyota Camry.

    As his mother told Verstka, the commanders demanded he hand over the car he had bought. He began beating him for refusing, and eventually ordered a subordinate with the call sign “Batrak” to erase her son’s account.

    Neither the video messages Tatyana recorded while her son was alive nor her complaints to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office helped . verstka.media/glavnaya-voenn…

    “As they told me, before he died, they beat him to death. He’s lying there in the forest belt in Galitsynovka. The guys can even show you where. But the investigators are completely inactive.

    They’re afraid, just afraid. I’m in shock. The boy has just been lying there since May 8th. I can’t bury him, I can’t do anything.” His mother hasn’t received any compensation or wages for the deceased—her son is listed as missing.

    According to a soldier with the call sign “Kurgan,” before assaults, the “Kemer” commander confiscates the soldiers’ bank cards and demands they provide their PIN numbers, supposedly so he can hand them over to their relatives “in case of emergency.” But this never happens.

    “Kemer” and “Dudka,” both from the Novosibirsk region, are not career military personnel, according to their fellow soldiers, but rather individuals with criminal records.

    Verstka discovered that Dudukov was convicted of robbery in 2011 and 2023. Kemerov didn’t enlist in the military until 2023. He was leaving a prison colony where he was serving a sentence for fraud.

    Verstka attempted to contact both soldiers; – they read the messages but didn’t respond. Kemerov later called back, saying, “Who the hell are you?!

    I’ll find you—I’ll cut off your balls and you’ll eat them!” but declined further interviews

    Relatives of the victims talk about new BMWs and apartments in Sochi that the commanders bought for themselves by robbing the fighting men—but Verstka was unable to find any ownership documents.

    Both “Kemer” and “Dudka” operate in the interests of “Akula” commander Captain Ilkhom Peter of the 80th Regiment, a unit that occupied the village of Bohdanivka in the Kyiv region at the beginning of the invasion, where Russian troops murdered and raped civilians.

    Peter has received numerous awards and projects a handsome military image.

    He gives interviews to state media and war correspondents, appears on Channel One’s “Blue Light,” and calls on Russians to “not be afraid” and go to war to “defeat Nazism.”

    Three of Verstka’s sources also specifically noted that “Akula” is from Tajikistan and allegedly hates Russians. “He absolutely hates Russians, he just wants more of us, so we can all be killed, that’s all. He really hates us, to be honest,” says Alexey. A soldier with the call sign “Kurgan” confirms this, recalling how Peter would lash out specifically at Russian soldiers. “He yells, ‘Fuck, you’re Russian trash, you drink, you don’t know anything, you don’t stand up for yourself, you should just be exterminated if you can’t be useful,'” the soldier quotes “Akula” as saying.

    According to Verstka’s sources, Peter is a career soldier who earns money and awards during the war and strives for advancement. One of his goals is to earn the Hero of Russia award. “‘Shark’ told us right away that until I get the Hero, you’ll all fall,” says one of the stormtroopers.

    According to the military, Peter isn’t currently doing the “dirty work” of the zeroer; that’s what “Kemer,” “Dudka,” and other contractors do. “‘Akula’ is cunning, smart, and cruel, and those mongrels of his are just devils.

    They don’t give a damn who they zero out or who they torture. Everyone’s going wild here. You get what you want,” says a soldier with the call sign “Kurgan.”.

    “They beat our sniper to death with their fists.”

    Another soldier accused of torture and resetting records for money is the commander of an assault company in the 114th Brigade, Vyacheslav Kiselev, call sign “Fox,” a subordinate of “Said.”

    Kiselev is a former prisoner from the town of Buy in the Kostroma region. In 2013, while drunk, he raped a girl in a building entrance, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

    In 2022, Kiselev served another prison sentence, this time for robbery. It was from there that he went to war. By 2023, Kiselev had become a company commander, and soon became one of the main extortionists and zeroers.

    “The Fox” traded the opportunity to continue living—meaning, not to go on assaults, says a Verstka source. The amounts ranged from tens of thousands to a million.

    According to two Verstka sources from the “Lias” company, the commanders used this money to buy personal cars and build apartments for themselves in the trenches.

    Those who refused to pay, go on the assault, or attempt to complain faced punishment, according to Verstka’s sources. “‘Fox’ beat up the guys and took their money,” recalls Yuri. “In my presence, Kiselev and his trusted soldiers beat our sniper to death with their fists because he refused to go on the assault and refused to pay them. In my presence, they hung the guy on a hook and beat him to death with their fists.”

    “We had Ilya Sobolev, call sign ‘Cartel,'” says Dmitry, a soldier from the same brigade. “He refused to go into battle in the village of Novosevka in the Donetsk region. ‘Fox’ wiped him out. He simply beat him to death with sticks.

    “They tie me up and beat me with a copper cable for five hours

    Yuri, a Verstka interviewee, was tortured under the direction of “Fox” in the spring of 2023 after complaining about wage arrears.

    “He took me from the hospital, handcuffed me to a pipe in some village, and started beating me.

    Afterward, I sat handcuffed for two days near the same pipe. Then they gave me an automatic rifle, a bulletproof vest, a helmet, and sent me to the front lines near Krasnogorovka with other guys.” Asked who gave the order for the punishment, Yuri said: “The entire command of the 114th Brigade was involved in this, including “Said” and “Fox.”

    After being wounded again, Yuri began paying tribute to his commanders. Then he began extorting money for “Fox” from other soldiers, supposedly “for the needs of his comrades.” The exact needs, Yuri notes, were unimportant. He invented them himself.

    Then they raised half a million rubles. “All the money was transferred to ‘Fox”s account, belonging to a front man—some girl he’d met. ‘Fox’ paid a percentage of that money to ‘Said.'”

    Soon, “Fox” picked Yuri up from the hospital and took him to a military base, which Verstka’s source calls “Redhead.” There, the soldier began to be beaten again.

    “‘Fox’ first takes a paper tube from under the stretch film and starts hitting me with it. He hits me, and hits me, and hits me, and hits me,” Yuri recalls.

    “They knock me down, tie me up, cut off a copper cable about seven centimeters in diameter, thick as a hose. And ‘Fox’ just starts beating me with it. For five hours. They put a bag over my head and started beating me further, and I was already thinking… I said, ‘Guys, give me a grenade, I’m going to blow myself up now.’ I wasn’t afraid anymore.”

    This, according to Yuri, was a preemptive threat: to prevent Yuri from complaining about extortion and torture in the future. That same night, according to Yuri, commanders arrived at the Ryzhaya base on “Said’s” orders to execute undesirable fighters.

    Article continues 🧵31/39:
    https://x.com/anno1540/status/1983559162995822691?s=46

     

     

     

     

     

    2. CB500four

      Darn barbarians. At some point, the soldiers must turn their weapons against their officers. But they are so cowed, they just look away and hope they are not next to be nullified.

    1. johan No.1

      Pokrovsk, I believe, has been over-marked a bit on the maps, but in Kupiansk, the UA counterattack failed, and Project Owls’ map doesn’t look good at all.

      The fact is that RU has now launched a “blitz offensive” Russian style towards the very last crossing over the Oskil, and when they reach it, there is no retreat route for Ukrainian forces east of the Oskil.

      There, it can only go one way since it is not a prioritized area for UA, and they also have Pokrovsk to deal with at the same time.

        1. johan No.1

          Yes, I’m tired of Ukraine not targeting certain types of goals.

          Ukraine has received robots in everything they have, including parliament, visiting heads of state, GUR, and the presidential palace.

  45. johan No.1

    Jari – I thought I had removed the part about Gregg after he posted his post yesterday.

    I usually post my posts the day before but went in and edited, I thought.

    On Substack it is correct but it may not have been saved on johanno1.se.

    So just so you know that I was thinking right even though it turned out wrong 😀

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