Dead Men Walking -A View From The Russian Side Of The War In Ukraine: The Eastern Front
“Dmitry Lysakovsky, an old friend of some of the big names from the pre-SMO Donbass war aka “Goodwin” recorded a last-minute video tell-all testament in which he explained that he and his men, despite being drone operators, were being sent into a suicidal frontal assault against a fortified Ukrainian army position. He says that this is because they had refused to go along with the criminal drug-trafficking operation of their commanding officer.
[NOTE: the FSB runs a drug empire in the Donbass, selling to soldiers and vets mostly who suffer from PTSD or injury pain.]
In the video, he also explained some of the more disturbing details of how this war is being conducted. In particular, he claimed that the commanders routinely lied about their battlefield successes to the higher-ups and that insane orders that led to the destruction of entire units in pointless suicide charges are standard practice.
This recording is illegal because the Duma passed another law against the discreditation of the military which stipulates that soldiers are not allowed to have recording devices or communication devices so that they are not able to discredit the war effort by talking about their own experiences on the battlefield.
Despite the fact that it is illegal and therefore nothing more than NAZI! propaganda, Russian Z-Telegram is in a total uproar. Goodwin and his friends perished in the suicide assault just as he predicted that he would. I will simply share the reactions.
Here is a summary first though:
Today it became known about the death of Dmitry Lysakovsky, better known as "Goodwin". He and several other people who were objectionable to the regiment commander were disbanded from their UAV squad and reformed into an assault squad and sent to the front line without any support, in fact, simply to die. Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Gritsai, who recorded the dying video, also died with him:
“All the information that we delivered about enemy targets reconnoitered with the help of UAVs was blocked at the level of the regiment commander and chief of staff and did not go any higher - so that the Ukrainian army's targets would not be destroyed. So that they would continue to destroy our own fighters. So that they would continue to strike at the territory of the Russian Federation.
And as soon as it became clear that we had the ability to [bypass the commanders and] distribute information higher, the order came down: "Let's bury Ernest, Goodwin, and everyone else involved in this." And if we do not return from this atttack, then this recording will be proof that we were right. If you fight for your Motherland, fight for your Motherland, not for your own pockets. And we are off to go storm - an oath, a duty.”
An interesting situation is emerging: the regiment commander sends people he doesn't like to die, taking away all their equipment and depriving them of support in advance. In his video, Goodwin also accused the commander of drug trafficking and sabotage.
By “sabotage” he means that the higher-ups were taking money from the enemy to avoid bombing key positions and to launch their own men into suicidal attacks. Here:
Before his death, Dmitry Goodvin Lysakovsky recorded a video message in which he accused his regiment commander of deliberately disbanding the long-range UAV crew and transferring the entire crew to the assault division, of running drug trafficking, and of the fact that the regiment commander's inner circle is connected to Western intelligence. The video states that it will be published in the event of his death. A few days later, the entire crew died in the assault, including Goodvin. The latest messages (https://t.me/ghost_of_novorossia/26379?single) were published by Vladimir Grubnik.
Some background on the personalities involved. Here:
In the 87th OSP of the 1st Slavyansk Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, Ernest assembled a team of specialized specialists consisting of pilots of various types of UAVs, engineers, mechanics, technicians, sappers, and signalmen (a total of 29 people). They found drones, repaired them, flashed them, engineered FPVs, made carts, repaired vehicles, made electronic warfare, and performed combat work directly. In particular, the pilots entered Severnoye, Tonenkoye, and Umanskoye when the regiment was just approaching these positions, carried out tasks, and suffered losses.
The new regiment commander Puzik (call sign "Evil"), appealing to the staffing schedule, disbanded this team, and during Ernest's vacation, by order of the regiment commander, all the materials collected by the team, both purchased with personal funds and received from volunteers, was confiscated.
At the same time, the regiment commander's order prohibited the personnel from seeking humanitarian aid through any channels other than through his wife Ekaterina Kornienko ("KatyaValyaDNR").”
More:
“Meat-wave storms, drug trafficking, fake reports of "taken settlements" - this is just a small part of what we learned today from three dying video messages of Dmitry Lysakovsky dedicated to the situation in one of the military units.
Despite the fact that Shoigu has not been at his post for 4 months, it is difficult to imagine any kind of restoration of order in the active army taking place. The destruction of a combat-ready unit of the Russian Armed Forces by the hands of its own commanders says a lot [about the truth of the situation].
Now they will hire propagandists to explain to the people that Ernest and Goodwin actually killed themselves. Or that they deliberately ran away from the main part of the personnel of the military unit. The authorities have long ago developed a practice of retouching any complex or discrediting incidents. In recent years, the people mostly resemble a guppy fish, with an operational memory of 3 seconds. Nevertheless, we must remember our heroes, and we must ensure that all those guilty of the deaths of Ernest and Goodwin are held accountable to the full extent of our laws.” https://t.me/voprosvlasti/528
Source:
This war, given the static nature of the front for the last two years (Donetsk Oblast is still under 50% occupied) and given the massive losses of Russian troops and equipment, seems to be a means of depopulating Russia, specifically of military capable males, and destroying its military equipment, thus weakening its ability to fight off any invasion by the Chinese - who now import the majority of their fossil fuels from the Russian Far East. Couple this with the allegation that Putin and his family speak Chinese at home (https://www.firstpost.com/world/putin-to-russian-school-kids-little-ones-in-my-family-speak-fluent-chinese-13810855.html), the currently-increasing debt to China, and the fact that he Chinese have redrawn their maps to include Russia's Far East as Chinese territory, and it suggests that Putin's sole loyalty may not be to Russia - and that Russia's new leaders after Putin may be Chinese... The continuation of the war in Ukraine after the initial failure at Kiev - and the fact that the troops in that invasion were the victims of deception - had they known that it was an invasion instead of just a “military exercise”, they would have trained and supplied themselves differently. This seems to suggest ulterior motives on Putin's part, not simply "doubling down on failure". There might be a tacit agreement in place between Putin and his siloviki and the Chinese - to eventually be presented as a fait accompli..