The Ministry of Defence cannot locate him using the badge number Ilya sent to his mother shortly before his death and claims no such badges were ever issued. She has appealed to the regional ombudsman without success.
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
-
Prisoner moved, calls from occupied Novoazovsk on borrowed phone.
5/ On 13 April, the prison administration told her that he was no longer being held in the facility. Three days later, Ilya called her on a borrowed phone ("there is one phone for 150 people") from Novoazovsk, a seaside town in the occupied Donetsk region near the Russian border.
-
Sentenced to war from the punishment cell with contract and pardon
6/ He told her that he had been persuaded (or forced) to go to war while in the punishment cell. He was taken to a military airfield as part of a group of 76 convicts. "On the plane they gave him a contract with the Ministry of Defence for 6 months with a subsequent pardon."
-
Storm Z: Russia’s Penal Battalions Reviving Stalin-Era Tactics for High-Risk Assaults
3/ Storm Z is effectively a revival of the Stalin-era shtrafbat (penal battalion) – a company-sized unit of convicts and possibly some mobilised soldiers being punished for being 'refuseniks'. Storm Z units are used for high-risk, high-casualty assaults.https://t.co/opsu12sOPP
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) 18 juillet 20233/ Storm Z is effectively a revival of the Stalin-era shtrafbat (penal battalion) – a company-sized unit of convicts and possibly some mobilised soldiers being punished for being 'refuseniks'. Storm Z units are used for high-risk, high-casualty assaults.
-
Russian convicts forced into “ghost soldier” roles in Ukraine
1/ Another account has emerged of Russian convicts becoming "ghost soldiers", serving in secret without pay, documentation, or dog tags to identify bodies. They are reportedly forcibly being removed from prisons and given contracts as they are being flown to Ukraine.
-
Prisoner sent to fight in Ukraine, then disappears
2/ "We Can Explain" (MO) reports on the case of 22 year old Ilya Khanbekov, who was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for a drug offence. His mother Svetlana says he was taken from his prison and sent to fight in Ukraine with a Storm Z unit. He has since disappeared.
-
Poltava Brigade Destroys Russian Armored Vehicles
⚡️The 🇺🇦Poltava Territorial Defense Brigade destroys 🇷🇺Russian armored vehicles pic.twitter.com/jgAYtdVpe4
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) 18 juillet 2023The Poltava Territorial Defense Brigade destroys Russian armored vehicles
-
4 Russian drones detected over Dnipropetrovsk region
4 russian drones detected over the Dnipropetrovsk region right now.
-
Ukrainian forces strike Russian armor with Javelin missiles
⚡️The 🇺🇦Ukrainian military works on 🇷🇺Russian armored vehicles from the 🇺🇸American FGM-148 Javelin ATGM in the eastern direction pic.twitter.com/VCAVmkv9Lm
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) 18 juillet 2023The Ukrainian military works on Russian armored vehicles from the American FGM-148 Javelin ATGM in the eastern direction
-
UK reports Ukraine holds beachhead at Antonivsky Bridge
UK Defense Ministry: Ukraine maintains left-bank beachhead at Antonivsky Bridge. Ukrainian forces maintain a small beachhead on the Dnipro River's left bank near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge in Kherson Oblast, the U.K. Defense Ministry said on July 18.