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In the 20 months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured around 200 of Russia’s T-72B3 tanks.

The T-72B3, a product of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, is one of Russia’s newer tanks. And unlike, say, the T-64BV, the T-80U or the T-72AMT, Ukrainian industry doesn’t have much experience with the type.

So when a Ukrainian tanker with the callsign “Kochevnik” ran into problems with his captured Russian T-72B3—problems local expertise couldn’t immediately solve—he called Uralvagonzavod tech support. And incredibly, the help line actually helped.

Militarnyi captured Kochevnik’s calls on video.

Kochevnik serves in the Ukrainian army’s 54th Mechanized Brigade, which fights around Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine and operates mostly Soviet-vintage equipment including T-64 tanks and BMP fighting vehicles. It also owns some of Ukraine’s ex-Russian T-72B3s.

Kochevnik was trolling the Russians, mostly. But his gripes with his 45-ton, three-person tank were real. The tank had been spewing oil. Its compressors weren’t working. The electrical turret-rotation mechanism kept failing, forcing the crew to rotate the turret with a hand crank.

While any tank can be temperamental, the list of malfunctions Kochevnik was dealing with might speak to inconsistent workmanship at Uralvagonzavod’s factories.

A Russian who gave his name as Aleksander Anatolevich, who clearly was unaware that Kochevnik is a Ukrainian soldier, promised he’d bring up the problems with the design bureau in Nizhny Tagil—and that he’d also contact the engine-manufacturer in Chelyabinsk.

Kochevnik wasn’t done trolling. He also got ahold of Andrey Abakumov, a Uralvagonzavod director. Abakumov asked Kochevnik to describe the tank’s problems in detail on WhatsApp.

That’s when Kochevnik finally revealed he’s Ukrainian, and his army had captured the problematic T-72 around Izium late last year.

Laughing, Kochevnik ended the call.

Three Russian propagandists — military expert Konstantin Sivkov, TASS news wire employee Mikhail Tereshchenko, and political analyst Timofei Sergeitsev — recently found severed pig heads outside their homes. (Death threats for these guys are no surprise.)

MOSCOW, September 27 - RIA Novosti. Konstantin Sivkov, a prominent Russian military expert, told RIA Novosti that unknown people planted a pig's head under his door and threatened to kill him for supporting the Defense Ministry.

This is the second such case to come to light on Wednesday: the day before, the press service of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency said, a pig's head was planted under the door of RIA Novosti columnist Timofei Sergeitsev.

"I was on vacation. A pig's head was planted right under the apartment door. Then they called me and told me that it was due to the fact that I was misbehaving in the information space. They started demanding from me that I refuse to support the actions of the Russian president, refuse to support the special military operation and our Armed Forces," Sivkov said.

"There were threats up to and including assassination. The following was said verbatim: "We have long arms, and we can kill you at any moment, and nothing will happen to us for this," Sivkov added. The doctor of military sciences specified that this incident happened to him on September 19. According to him, he immediately contacted the law enforcement agencies, but did not make public statements. Now he has confirmed the fact of what happened after a request from RIA Novosti and the appearance of information in the Telegram channels. Sivkov refused to comment on the investigation, referring to the secrecy of the investigation.

This is not the first case of psychological pressure on Sivkov. Earlier in April 2023, the expert received from an unknown sender a bust of Marshal Zhukov, gilded in the same way as the statuette with the explosives that were used to kill military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky.

The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02.22 to 12.09.23 were approximately:

• personnel - about 269760 (+550) persons,
• tanks - 4568 (+8) units,
• armored personnel carriers - 8778 (+11) units
• artillery systems - 5872 (+33) units,
• MLRS - 764 (+4) units,
• air defense systems / Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 515 (+3) units
• aircraft - 315 (+0) units
• helicopters - 316 (+0) units,
• UAV operational-tactical level - 4645 (+17),
• cruise missiles - 1455 (+0),
• ships / boats / warships / boats - 19 (+0) units,
• vehicles and fuel tanks - 8413 (+43) units,
• special equipment - 881 (+4).

Data are being updated.

The Russian military intends to recruit 420,000 contract personnel by the end of 2023. On 3 September 2023, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dimitry Medvedev stated that so far 280,000 personnel had been recruited. These numbers cannot be independently verified. Russia's conscription continues to have negative effects on its industry workforce. The Yegor Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy found that Russia's industry shortage of workers reached a new high of 42% for July 2023, 7% higher from April 2023.

In contrast to conscription efforts elsewhere, in the IT sector Russia has taken steps to preserve the workforce. This likely highlights the particularly acute shortages in the sector after about 100,000 IT workers left Russia in 2022. This equates to 10% of the IT sector workforce. On 4 September 2023, President Putin signed a decree to increase the exemption age of military recruitment for IT professionals from 27 to 30.

This shows that mobilisation and conscription within Russia has worsened non-defence workforce shortages. In the run-up to the Russian presidential elections scheduled for March 2024, Russian authorities will likely seek to avoid further unpopular mobilisations.

The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02.22 to 11.09.23 were approximately:

• personnel - about 269210 (+580) people / persons,
• tanks - 4560 (+6) units,
• armored personnel carriers - 8767 (+12) units
• artillery systems - 5839 (+28) units,
• MLRS - 760 (+0) units,
• air defense systems / Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 512 (+3) units
• aircraft - 315 (+0) units
• helicopters - 316 (+0) units,
• UAV operational-tactical level - 4628 (+35),
• cruise missiles - 1455 (+0),
• ships / boats / warships / boats - 19 (+0) units,
• vehicles and fuel tanks - 8370 (+32) units,
• special equipment - 877 (+5).

Data are being updated.

She already has been released after being charged with discrediting Russia's Military

How can I set the language of a post before I submit it? All my posts with connect app are undefined.

On 25 August 2023, two Russian soldiers were sentenced to serve at least two years in a penal colony by a military court for refusing to obey orders to return to the front in Ukraine. On 18 July 2023 the Mediazona news outlet reported that Russia was convicting close to 100 soldiers a week for refusing to fight. If this trend continues, there will be approximately 5,200 convictions a year for refusing to fight.

The high rate of convictions demonstrates the poor state of morale in the Russian Army and the reluctance of some elements to fight. Refusal to fight likely reflects the lack of training, motivation and high stress situations Russian forces face along the entire Ukrainian frontline.

Although some soldiers have refused to fight and attrition rates remain high, Russia highly likely mitigates their loss by committing a mass of poorly trained soldiers to the frontline.

Since Russia’s September 2022 partial mobilisation, Russia has adapted its approach to warfare by utilising sheer mass for offensive and defensive operations.

The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02.22 to 30.08.23 were approximately:

• personnel - about 262410 (+570) people / persons,
• tanks - 4423 (+9) units,
• armored personnel carriers - 8596 (+17) units
• artillery systems - 5476 (+26) units,
• MLRS - 733 (+0) units,
• air defense systems / Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 500 (+0) units
• aircraft - 315 (+0) units
• helicopters - 316 (+0) units,
• UAV operational-tactical level - 4395 (+8),
• cruise missiles - 1419 (+0),
• ships / boats / warships / boats - 18 (+0) units,
• vehicles and fuel tanks - 7953 (+44) units,
• special equipment - 825 (+5).

Data are being updated.