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  • 'They're just meat': Russia deploys punishment battalions in echo of Stalin

    10/03/2023 4:24:24 AM PDT · by Timber Rattler · 28 replies
    Reuters ^ | October 3, 2023 | Polina Nikolskaya and Maria Tsvetkova
    Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts. They're among hundreds of military and civilian offenders who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units. Few live to tell their tale, the people said. (snip) "Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June. (snip) Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that...