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Major events in the Ukraine proxy war, 2026 (view source)
Revision as of 11:15, June 28, 2026
, June 28→Starobilsk school bombing and retaliation
[[Putin]] said in a televised statement, “There are no military facilities, intelligence service facilities, or related services in the vicinity. Therefore, there is absolutely no basis for claiming that the munitions struck the building as a result of our air defense or electronic warfare systems. The strike was not accidental; it came in three waves, with 16 drones targeting the same location,” Putin told officials. Russia responded with an [[Oreshnik]] strike on decision making centers near [[Kyiv]].
[[Putin]] said in a televised statement, “There are no military facilities, intelligence service facilities, or related services in the vicinity. Therefore, there is absolutely no basis for claiming that the munitions struck the building as a result of our air defense or electronic warfare systems. The strike was not accidental; it came in three waves, with 16 drones targeting the same location,” Putin told officials. Russia responded with an [[Oreshnik]] strike on decision making centers near [[Kyiv]].
==Ukraine's 425th assault unit==
The 425th is Ukraine’s largest regiment, having expanded tenfold in the first half of 2026 boasts more than 13,000 troops. It has absolute priority in receiving new recruits, receiving 20 times more troops than other brigades. Ukraine’s [[political]] and [[military]] leadership need the 425th for their frontline info-operations, and the 425th needs absolutely obedient, expendable meat for these operations.
According to Ukraine’s military ombudsman Olga Reshetilova, the 425th has 2000 soldiers dependent on [[methadone]] treatment. Ukraine has state-funded methadone treatment clinics as a way to wean drug addicts off of street opioids.
Now, the problem is that the commanders of the 425th seem to believe that they know best how to deal with [[drug addiction]]. The ‘Rock’, according to ''Babel''<ref>https://babel.ua/texts/127938-shturmoviy-polk-skelya-maye-boyovi-zaslugi-i-dobre-zabezpechennya-a-shche-kazhut-ochevidci-tam-katuyut-i-zabivayut-lyudey-na-smert-rozsliduvannya-babelya</ref>, has the following approach:
First, officers from the 425th show up at state-registered methadone distribution clinics along with [[TCC|mobilization press gangs]]. There are 26,000 people registered for these programs across the country, mostly [[men]], an excellent mobilization resource. [[Doctor]]s in the Kropivnitsky methadone clinic told ''Babel'' of 160 patients mobilized in the '[[hospital]] over the past few months. Officers from the 425th simply marched straight in and took them.
Then, the mobilized are taken to the 425th’s distribution warehouse. This has the evocative name ‘the chicken coop’. This long building, located on the edge of a village, resembles an abandoned agricultural facility. The 425th uses it as a sort of barracks, dividing the six living sections with fiberboard panels. In good industrial farming practices, there are no windows.
Eyewitnesses tell ''Babel'' that there are 1,000 to 1,200 men in the chicken coop at any time. Many are suffering from drug withdrawals. Naturally, all [[phone]]s are confiscated long before they even get to the chicken coop. Oleksandr Zhykin, a man sent to the 425th despite his methadone dependence, told ''Babel'' about the prison conditions reigning at the chicken coop:
{{Cquote|They brought us there, got us out like we were coming out of a prison transport van — stripped us naked, searched us, made us take off our underwear and squat.}}
Zhykin actually joined the army relatively willingly back in 2023. Due to his methadone dependence, he was not able to serve at the frontline, and says he was quite happy working as a medic and clerk at his old, non-assault unit. Everything change in mid-February 2026 when a new commander took charge. The new commander confiscated Zhykin’s methadone. Zhykin filed a [[police]] report because he could not live without the medication. Over-ruled, he was sent to a reserve battalion. He encountered the same problem there. When he left the unit to collect his methadone tablets, he was officially recorded as AWOL.
As punishment for his desertion, he was sent to the 425th. He would eventually be sent to the 3rd infantry battalion of the 425th, despite earlier [[military]] [[medical]] commission concluding that he was unfit for service in such assault activities.
Zhykin recalls that new recruits apparently spend several days in the chicken coop. They are collected by visiting officers from the many battalions of the 425th. Their new owners have the evocative name ‘internal buyers’.
{{Cquotte|I was there for two days. But there were people who had been sitting there for two months. I even saw some who ended up staying there to work.}}
Once they have been chosen by the ‘internal buyers’, the fresh meat is sent to the training bases of the 425th. These are much more dangerous places than the chicken coop.
The Rock is deeply suffused with the lingo and practices of post-[[soviet]] prisons. Special armed men accompany newly mobilized men at the training bases. These armed men are called ''‘vertukhai’'', meaning ‘jailers’ in post-soviet prison slang. Below is an artistic depiction of a ''vertukhai''.
"Your priceless first experience of going to the toilet: moving in groups under the barrels of assault rifles, accompanied by ‘refined’ insults and rough kicks for not standing in a straight enough formation or not looking the way they wanted. Endless squats, planks, and the ‘one-and-a-half’ position—
“One-and-a-half,” according to the soldier, is something like a standing wall sit: thighs parallel to the ground, arms stretched forward.
—so that you ‘understand where you’ve ended up,’ don’t waste time, and get ready for your future ‘mission.’ To the toilet, to the dining hall—everywhere under armed escort. Like prisoners of war”
According to another interviewed soldier, new recruits are sorted upon arrival, Auschwitz-style:
“The [[drug addict]]s go one way because they’re behaving erratically, some of them are already feeling sick. If they behave badly, they’re beaten severely. The calmer ones just wait their turn”
Naturally, the withdrawals often begin already in the chicken coop. Insomnia, omnipresent pain, nausea, diarrhea, suicidal ideation. Only a minority receive IV drips, which somewhat mitigates symptoms. Those hallucinating are isolated.
One mobilized soldier speaking to Babel on condition of anonymity recalls sitting in the punishment cell with four people that were seeing pink elephants. Even worse, he couldn’t join in. He was not going through any withdrawals, he was simply punished for refusing to do squats — two days in the tiny punishment cell, covered mainly with a double mattress. At one point there were six or seven people in it, with at least four going through methadone withdrawals: “Each of them was in their own little fantasy world, talking to people who weren’t there. They [the drug addicts] were trying to break down the door and causing chaos. The guards subdued them by spraying tear gas into the cell, and all of us had to breathe it”
The soldier also recalls not being allowed to go to the [[toilet]]. Only a bottle in the cell for urination was available. At one point, his hallucinating cellmates stripped naked and began jumping around while pouring water over themselves. Once the water ran out, they turned to the urine. The minority of prisoners not addicted to [[drug]]s managed to beat them into submission.
“One of them later started freezing, but he refused to put his [[clothes]] back on and refused to [[eat]]. I remember he crawled under a blanket and, right there under it, defecated on himself. There was masturbation too”
After this ordeal, the soldiers and a few others were gathered for training. While travelling, several soldiers in a nearby minibus smashed a window and tried to escape. They were beaten by commanders in front of all the other recruits.
''Babel'' was able to identify at least four separate bases used by the 425th. A number of new ones are also being built. [[Soldier]]s that went through these bases recall that the rules and conditions are largely the same everywhere, except that recruits live in tents in some, and in dugouts elsewhere.
''Babel'' describes one base in a pine forest. The tent camps are located several kilometers from the training grounds. 35 to 40 men sleep in each tent’s bunk beds. One of the first rules they learn is that new recruits are not allowed to walk around the base without permission. One recruit who somehow managed to escape from this [[concentration camp]] told Babel the following:
{{Cquote|Even if they want to go to the toilet, they’re only allowed to do so once enough people have gathered—at least five—and only under the escort of a guard carrying an assault rifle.}}
''Babel'' continues, writing that each tent has two armed guards assigned to it. One guard accompanies troops going to the toilet, the other remains behind. Whenever recruits leave the tent, they must march in formation. Failure to do so or appropriately line up provokes guards to fire live ammunition into the ground or in the air. An anonymous soldier who escaped told Babel the following:
{{Cquote|As they constantly emphasize, all the ammunition in their rifles is live. They can easily shoot a mobilized man in the legs, and nothing will happen to them. After seeing that, some people forgot they even wanted to go to the toilet—or they relieved themselves before they got there.}}
Zhykin also confirmed that no one was allowed to go to the toilet at night. New recruits were told to use a bottle instead.
==References==
==References==