[V87Beast]

Russians have developed a bag to carry TM-62 Anti-tank mines. The bag straps one mine to the soldiers front, one one to his back.

The bag also features a handle so soldiers can opt to carry the bag instead of strapping it to themselves.

[scorpion9]

Originally Posted by V87Beast ↗

Russians have developed a bag to carry TM-62 Anti-tank mines. The bag straps one mine to the soldiers front, one one to his back.

The bag also features a handle so soldiers can opt to carry the bag instead of strapping it to themselves.

Perfect bullseye target for the FPV pilot. One boom and you can take half a squad out with it :D

[kellyhound]

How russian army officers are executing their own men and getting away with it:

Soldiers on the front line aren’t just dying in combat with Ukrainian troops but many are being killed by their own commanders.

In a new investigation, the outlet Verstka identified 101 servicemen accused of involvement in field executions, referred to within the russian army as “zeroings out.”

Their alleged crimes include cases where soldiers were tortured to death, shot or sent on suicide missions as punishment for “disobedience” or refusal to fight.

The outlet Verstka has compiled a Database of soldiers who have been accused of killing their fellow servicemen.

These summary executions are known in military slang as “zeroings out,” and the people who carry them out are called “zeroers.”

The database currently includes 101 names. Of those, 79 are listed as “identified,” meaning Verstka was able to obtain at least two independent confirmations of their alleged crimes.

For the remaining 22, there isn’t yet enough evidence. “That’s why the database will be continuously updated”, encouraging readers to share any additional information.

Almost all 79 identified individuals are commanders of various ranks. For most of them, Verstka has detailed information, including their names, ranks, units, and photographs.

The outlet notes that only a handful of these people have faced criminal charges.

A source in russia’s Main Military Prosecutor’s Office told Verstka that the agency has imposed an informal ban on investigations into officers fighting in Ukraine, saying that such inquiries could “negatively affect military operations.”

The same source provided Verstka with data on nearly 29,000 complaints received by the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office in the first six months of 2025.

These records became one of the key sources for the “zeroers” database, alongside interviews with russian soldiers and their relatives, reports from chat groups, and materials published on TG channels and in the media.

According to the source, since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office has received more than 12,000 complaints related to killings within the ranks.

Killings inside the russian army take many forms, ranging from the outright murder of a fellow soldier, death by torture, or sending someone on a suicide assault, unarmed and without protection.

On the front lines, soldiers accused of “misconduct” are often held in cellars or pits. Those thrown into these holes are denied food and water and beaten several times a day, a soldier named Yuri, who served in the 114th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, told.

According to him, some prisoners die right there in the pit, while survivors are sometimes forced to kill one another.

One such incident appeared in a video circulated in May 2025 by Ukrainian projects targeting russian servicemen.

The footage shows two shirtless men, as a voice off-camera says: “[Commander] ‘Kama’ basically said whoever beats the other one to death here gets out of the pit.”

The men then begin to fight. As the voice keeps goading them “Finish him off already, the fuck are you waiting for?” one of them finally shoves his comrade aside; the other lies motionless.

The call sign “Kama” mentioned in the video belongs to Aynur Sharifullin, the commander of one of the 114th Brigade’s units.

Sharifullin is father of three from Tatarstan, with years of military experience. In addition to torture, he’s been accused of extorting money from his soldiers.

A group chat dedicated to the 114th Brigade shared photos of the dugout where “Kama” allegedly lived.

With wallpapered walls and a double bed, it looked more like an apartment than a frontline shelter.

“Compare that with the dugouts of our regular guys. Do you all have heated floors? Because he does. Didn’t have time to install a shower before heading out on assignment. And there’s a 700,000-ruble [$8,750] motorcycle under a canopy outside.

I’ve had enough, ladies, seriously,” wrote the woman who posted the pictures. (She later deleted them.)

Witnesses to these killings told Verstka that “zeroings out” are usually carried out either by sadistic commanders or by those who see no other way to impose discipline. But the most common motive, they said, is money.

One such case was the killing of Andrey Bykov, a soldier in the assault company of russia’s 80th Guards Tank Regiment.

His mother told Verstka that after he received compensation for a combat injury, his commanders , known by the call signs “Dudka” and “Kemer”, demanded half of the payout.

Bykov refused and instead bought himself a Toyota Camry. The commanders then ordered him to hand over the car. When he refused again, they killed him.

“They told me they beat him so badly there wasn’t a single spot on his body left untouched,” said his mother, Tatyana Bykova. “He’s lying out there in the woods near Halytsynivka [a village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region].

The guys can even show you where. But the investigators are doing nothing. I’m in shock. My boy’s been lying there since May 8. I can’t even bury him.”

“Kemer” is the call sign of Dmitry Kemerov, the commander of the 80th Regiment’s assault company.

“Dudka” is his deputy, Mikhail Dudukov.

According to Verstka’s sources, soldiers under Kemerov’s command are extorted for “literally everything” from buying gear to avoiding an assault mission or staying out of the pit.

The commander himself, they said, demands the PIN codes of fallen soldiers’ bank cards.

Verstka found that both Kemerov and Dudukov had prior criminal convictions, and that Kemerov went to the front directly from prison, where he was serving time for fraud.

Another soldier accused of torturing and killing subordinates for money is Vyacheslav Kiselev, the commander of an assault company in the 114th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, known by the call sign “Lis.”

He, too, is a former inmate, previously convicted of rape and robbery. Yuri, the former 114th Brigade soldier who spoke to Verstka, said he saw “Lis” and his men “beat our sniper to death with their fists because he refused to go on an assault and refused to pay them.”

This is another common form of “zeroing out,” usually carried out against soldiers who refuse to take part in “meat assaults” or other suicide missions.

“You’re not actually going to reach those positions — they’ll just tear you apart with drones. That’s why people refuse,” said a mobilized soldier named Alexey.

According to him, in the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, those who refused to go into assaults were executed at point-blank range, and their bodies were either dumped in a river or buried in the forest.

According to two Verstka sources, “Kemer” personally shot a soldier with the call sign “Fiksa,” who had refused to serve as live bait to draw enemy fire and expose their positions.

Before he was killed, “Fiksa” was beaten and tortured with an electric shock device, and the incident was filmed. The video later surfaced in a group chat for soldiers’ relatives.

Alexey said that in one of his brigade’s battalions, there was an officer known by the call sign “Bely,” to whom commanders sent anyone who disobeyed orders or otherwise provoked their anger.

“Bely” had two snipers who watched for any of the “offenders” trying to retreat during an assault. If a soldier pulled back, the snipers would shoot him.

According to Alexey, Bely’s snipers killed 20 of his fellow servicemen in 2023, and 40 more in 2024.

Verstka was unable to independently verify these claims.

In the 139th Separate Assault Battalion, according to evidence gathered by Verstka, punishment is delivered not by snipers but by drones.

“We had combat orders to storm [tree lines], and the directive was to ‘zero out’ anyone who couldn’t make it forward. Those who refused to carry out that order were ‘zeroed out’ too — finished off with drone drops.

The drone operators were terrified, standing under the barrels of their commanders’ guns,” said a former soldier from the 139th Battalion.

Two other men from the same unit, who recorded video complaints about their commanders, also described killings carried out using drone-dropped explosives.

Drone strikes are not the most common method of “zeroing out.” Other, rarer forms of execution mentioned to Verstka include sending soldiers into assaults with grenades placed inside their body armor with “the pin removed, but the striker lever still held in place.”

“They send them to the positions like that,” one soldier told the outlet. “If you fall, or you get hit, or make a sudden move it explodes. But that’s an extreme case. I’ve only seen it happen once, near Chasiv Yar.”

According to Verstka, the bodies of “zeroed-out” soldiers are usually buried in the forest or left on the battlefield, where a burst from an assault rifle is fired over them to make it look like they died in combat.

On paper, these soldiers are usually listed as missing in action or as having deserted their unit in the latter case, their families receive no compensation.

But sometimes, the cover-ups are more elaborate. Vladislav Berlyakov, a serviceman from the 6th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, told Verstka that this is what happened to his comrade, Alexander Yurkov, who went by the call sign “Odessa.”

According to Berlyakov, commanders forced “Odessa” to sell drugs, and when he failed to hand over the proceeds one day, they beat him to death.

Berlyakov, who discovered “Odessa’s” body covered in bruises, abrasions, and lacerations, said he was ordered to keep quiet.

“Later that evening, I saw them put an old bulletproof vest and helmet on ‘Odessa,’ then place two grenades under him and detonate them,” Berlyakov said.

“After that, to conceal the signs of beating that could be detected during a medical examination, they left the body out in the heat for several days until it began to decompose. Then they sent it ‘back home’ labeled ‘killed in action.’”

About a week before Verstka published its investigation, on October 20, the outlet Vot Tak released a database cataloguing russian commanders accused of crimes against their own soldiers. The list includes 50 people, many of whom also appear in Verstka’s own database.

[William May]

Originally Posted by Silky ↗

I still don’t understand why Ukraine uses 2-3 drones just to kill 1 guy.

Imagine the thousands of soldiers going back to Russia with missing legs and arms, the public perception of the special military operation would change. But instead Ukraine wastes 2-3 drones to kill someone who will then be considered a hero instead Russia, instead of a homeless, maimed veteran.

That is actually a very good point. Every wounded soldier who goes back to Russia is a load on their economic engine. And a constant reminder of the stupidity of this war.

I understand that the U.S. M-16 rifle was picked, not because of great killing power, but because if it was used to wound someone, it took 2 or 3 more people to take care of him, thus increasing the load on the enemy. So it was good at wounding the enemy, but not so great at killing them. I don't know if that is a B.S. story, or an actual fact.

[Guns N' Coffee]

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia...ine-rcna220463

U.S. family moved to Russia to escape liberal culture and got drawn into the war with Ukraine
As many as 1,500 “ideological immigrants,” including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia in the last year.

Two years ago, Derek and DeAnna Huffman were desperate to leave Humble, a suburb of Houston. Their three daughters, they believed, were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights. American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races, they said.

The couple yearned to live in a place that shared their "Christian values" and where they "weren't going to be discriminated against" as white, politically-conservative Christians.

So in March, the Huffmans became the first family to move to a community planned for fellow English-speakers some 30 miles west of Moscow, a project they had been following online run by long-term American expat and former Kremlin-sponsored RT host Tim Kirby. The family is among a small but growing number of Americans who have moved to Russia because the United States, in their opinion, has become too “woke."

The Russian government has welcomed these culture war refugees. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin issued an executive order offering temporary residence to people wanting to move to the country because they rejected "destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes" of their home countries.

Around 1,500 of these “ideological immigrants,” as they’ve been dubbed by the Russian media, including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia, according to the Main Directorate for Migration Affairs.

"President Putin is an amazing leader and he’s done great things for Russia,” Derek Huffman, 45, said in a video on his family’s YouTube channel on March 9. “It’s nothing like you see on the news.” The social media platform X “is the only place where you get real information" about America's own problems, Derek says.

The family initially found a community of Russians and westerners on social media who encouraged their move, with donations from some of their 15,000 YouTube subscribers providing financial support after their arrival in Russia. But when Derek Huffman voluntarily joined the Russian army in May, the family became a lightning rod for broader online scrutiny.

Derek Huffman said he joined the Russian army to expedite the family’s applications for Russian citizenship, as well as to show support for their new homeland.

“Above and beyond the citizenship, the money, a big part of it for me is about the respect and earning our place here in Russia,” he said on the Huffmans’ YouTube channel on May 26.

But in a follow-up video posted in June, which was subsequently deleted, DeAnna Huffman, 42, told viewers that her husband had been “thrown to the wolves.” NBC News viewed a re-upload of the video.

The couple had hoped Derek Huffman would put previous welding experience to use in the repair battalion and “actually be utilized for his skills,” she said in the video. Instead, she said, he was sent to the front line and struggled to understand his training, which was in Russian.

Pro-Ukrainian commentators, keen to publicize hardship for pro-Russian figures, said on social media that Derek Huffman had been killed. A post on X claiming to have access to drone footage of his death has more than 2 million views. NBC News did not find video to substantiate the claim, and DeAnna Huffman denied the reports.

Derek reappeared in several videos on the family’s YouTube channel uploaded on October 25, celebrating his daughter’s birthday and signing forms to receive his Russian passport.

In one filmed in the family’s neighborhood, he said he was back “on vacation” after being deployed for six months, and praised his wife for keeping the family going while he was gone.

“I’m happy that I’m still alive and doing what I can to survive, and be of service to Russia. I’m so thankful to all the Russian people who have reached out and helped my family while I’ve been gone,” he said.

Another family, the Hares, also moved from Abilene, Texas, to Russia to shield their three sons from what they say are harmful elements of American culture.

“It was the promise of a country that would not promote the LGBT agenda. We liked the fact that LGBT is basically outlawed here in official ways,” Leo Hare, 62, told NBC News via a video call from the family’s new home in Ivanovo, Russia.

Russia has strict laws against the “promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships,” which have in practice banned public displays of LGBTQ identity, including wearing or posting the rainbow flag on social media.

His wife Chantelle Hare, 53, says in a video on the family's own YouTube channel that when they lived the U.S., she and her husband preferred to get their news from Alex Jones and Mike Adams, who are far-right commentators and conspiracy theorists. They felt particularly disillusioned with American politics after the 2020 election, and don’t believe Donald Trump’s return to power will change the country enough to convince them to return.

“When we left, it was final. We don’t plan to come back. There will not be anything to come back to,” Chantelle Hare said.

The Hares have endured their share of hardship trying to build a new life in Russia.

They say their initial plan to rent an apartment in Moscow fell through just as they boarded the plane from Texas, and the family spent a bitterly cold winter caring for chickens, horses and rabbits on a farm 70 miles south of Moscow in exchange for free board. At one point, they even had to bring the goats and their newborns inside their cabin to keep the animals from dying.

Leo Hare thought their troubles were over when their landlord’s son offered a generous interest rate for investing their $50,000 nest egg in what he described as a car import business. But they only saw one payment before he stopped sending them money and refused to return their money, Leo Hare said.

The couple went to the police and the local court to file complaints about their lost money and with their concerns that they had been swindled, but say they have received no help from law enforcement officials. NBC News contacted Domodedovo police for comment but did not receive a reply.

The Hares’ sons, 17, 15, and 12, have had difficulty adapting to life in Russia, and the two older boys want to return to America, according to their father. They feel isolated and are disappointed that school is not an option since Russia requires students to pass a language test to study in public schools.

Leo and Chantelle, who ran a carpet cleaning business and a mobile snack business back in the U.S., are now working as English tutors. They have found an apartment in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow, and “are living really comfortably now.” They are currently homeschooling their children. Leo Hare said it probably “would have been a dealbreaker” if they knew about the school restrictions.

The Hares have not met the Huffmans.

Leo Hare says he never considered joining the army because of his age and safety concerns, and says that Derek Huffman “assumed a little too much” about life in the Russian military.

"We assumed a lot, too," he admitted. "But we do have a faith in Christ and He is leading us, even though we’ve made mistakes."

[Guns N' Coffee]

He lives

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Guns N' Coffee ↗

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia...ine-rcna220463

Another family, the Hares, also moved from Abilene, Texas, to Russia to shield their three sons from what they say are harmful elements of American culture.

“It was the promise of a country that would not promote the LGBT agenda. We liked the fact that LGBT is basically outlawed here in official ways,” Leo Hare, 62, told NBC News via a video call from the family’s new home in Ivanovo, Russia.

His wife Chantelle Hare, 53, says in a video on the family's own YouTube channel that when they lived the U.S., she and her husband preferred to get their news from Alex Jones and Mike Adams, who are far-right commentators and conspiracy theorists.

“When we left, it was final. We don’t plan to come back. There will not be anything to come back to,” Chantelle Hare said.

The Hares have endured their share of hardship trying to build a new life in Russia.

They say their initial plan to rent an apartment in Moscow fell through just as they boarded the plane from Texas, and the family spent a bitterly cold winter caring for chickens, horses and rabbits on a farm 70 miles south of Moscow in exchange for free board. At one point, they even had to bring the goats and their newborns inside their cabin to keep the animals from dying.

Leo Hare thought their troubles were over when their landlord’s son offered a generous interest rate for investing their $50,000 nest egg in what he described as a car import business. But they only saw one payment before he stopped sending them money and refused to return their money, Leo Hare said.

The couple went to the police and the local court to file complaints about their lost money and with their concerns that they had been swindled, but say they have received no help from law enforcement officials. NBC News contacted Domodedovo police for comment but did not receive a reply.

[Major_Tom]

Originally Posted by William May ↗

That is actually a very good point. Every wounded soldier who goes back to Russia is a load on their economic engine. And a constant reminder of the stupidity of this war.

I understand that the U.S. M-16 rifle was picked, not because of great killing power, but because if it was used to wound someone, it took 2 or 3 more people to take care of him, thus increasing the load on the enemy. So it was good at wounding the enemy, but not so great at killing them. I don't know if that is a B.S. story, or an actual fact.

Yes, dealing with a number of wounded is a nightmare compared to dealing with the same number of dead.

[chowooohhh]

It's a bs story. The slug is smaller so that it travels faster and farther while still retaining accuracy. The killing power is based on total kinetic energy small but fast equals slow but big. Smaller ammo means you can carry more of it because it ways less. Bigger rounds on average kill a little more efficiently but the killing power of a high velocity round is nearly equal at close range to anything of a larger slower caliber because of its increased velocity and increased kinetic damage.

[Guns N' Coffee]

The Russians also realized the benefits of a smaller caliber and developed 5.45x39 to replace 7.62x39.