Death of Drone Operators

The true face of Russia or how one Goodwin won the Darwin prize

“Goodwin” farewell video, he will be dead within hours - via YT channel of Daily Telegraph

In mid-September, the #1 story on Russian TG channels was the death of drone operators, sent on a suicide mission by their commander as a cruel punishment for disobedience. So far, the English language sources picked the story up, but without the depth you can find in Russian language sources.

It’s a pity, because the whole story tells a lot about Russia. Once again, most of the truth about it will be lost in (the lack of) translation. So here I go with my humble attempt to bridge this gap.

I will try to reconstruct the sad story of the late drone operators based on what I’ve read on Russian Telegram channels. According to “Soldatska pravda”, , the drone team was formed in September 2022 under the auspices of Igor Strelkov-Girkin (now in prison). It was originally 32 volunteers from mainland Russia (the blogger using an euphemism: “from the bigger country”).

The quote on Strelkov and “the bigger country”, via TG channel of Soldatska Pravda (reposted by Ghost of Novorossia)

This is important, because people who don’t speak Russian believed the main lie, that the so called “Donbas separatism” was, in fact, Donbas separatism. Nobody in Russia believes in that, they don’t even pretend so when they talk to each other in Russian.

So if you read Russian sources, you don’t believe that “in 2014 the Russian speaking population revolted against the coup in Kyiv”, because you know the truth. The truth is that it was an invasion from the “bigger country”, led by paramilitary troops assembled by Igor Strelkov-Girkin - born and living in Moscow, Russia.

The 2014 failed to achieve its goal. They never managed to capture the entire Donbas. They were forced to retreat from their original HQ, established in Slaviansk. It is still doubtful if Russia will be able to recapture this city (even after the fall of Chasiv Yar, it is still a long way to reach there).

Unlike Putin, Girkin seems to be motivated by ideology. While he wholeheartedly supports the invasion as an idea - he became increasingly critical of the implementation. He ended up in prison for criticising Putin - but at least he is still alive.

In September 2022 it was already obvious that the second invasion also failed to achieve the original goals of reaching Kyiv and installing a puppet regime. The fall of 2022 was a season of bad news for the Russians - the offensive in Donbas slowed to a standstill, they were routed near Kharkiv following the retreat from Kyiv, and they were pushed out of Kherson, leaving behind billboards with a quote from Putin “Russia is here forever”, posted just a couple months before.

Farewell message from Goodwin: “I’m on the front line, our unit was disbanded, we are sent to Lisovoye, our unit consists from everybody who’s inconvenient for the commander: Ernest, me, Greek, Nick, no maps, no equipment, no information on minefields, nothing. It’s 12 of us. Tomorrow we attack Ukrainsk - via TG channel of Ghost of Novorossia

Apparently, Girkin correctly identified one of the main problem: Ukrainian supremacy in drone warfare. He decided to emulate the phenomenon of Aerorozvidka, a volunteer drone unit created by IT specialists, who wanted to defend their country in 2014 simply for the love of freedom.

They created this unit like a typical IT startup, by crowdfunding on Kickstarter. They maintained a high level of autonomy and internal liberty, even when working with the regular Ukrainian military.

The Girkin imitation was a success - to a certain extent. He assembled a group of techno-military specialists, some had engineering degrees, some had officer positions in the army. Their equipment was crowdfunded by the military bloggers (actually, this is one of the reasons they are allowed to exist).

But there was this little thingy - autonomy and liberty. Tyranny by definition won’t let you have them even if its existence depends on it.

This is especially true regarding the so called “separatist republics”. Girkin did not have much choice picking his “local leaders” there, so he had to use to the local organized crime as the backbone of the separatist “police” and “army”. That’s why the military bloggers are often robbed at gunpoint by the “police” when they deliver their goods to the “army”.

It seems that the drone operators were hoping their “elite” status will protect them and they were openly complaining about the activities of their commander (“kompolk”), colonel Puzik, callsign “Zloy” (“The Evil One”). He disbanded the drone unit, demoted them to foot infantry and sent to certain death.

In their last messages they say there were given no maps at all, let alone plans of the minefield. They were just ordered to go towards the enemy positions and almost all of them died, except for one, callsign “Sokrates”. It seems that he managed to desert, and milblogger Romanov says there is currently a manhunt for him.

Ernest, Goodvin, Riff, Shock and Sokrat - there was 12 of them, all from Russia. Sokrat is alive but there is manhunt after him - claims Romanov (on September 15th) - via TG channel of Romanov

According to the farewell videos, the “evil” kompolk was repeatedly reporting false successes to his superiors. Being drone operators, the victims knew the truth and they were also reporting it. The last case was of settlement called Lesovka - Puzik reported it as taken, while in fact his suicide stormtroopers only managed to reach it - and got killed by the Ukrainians, still present in ruins. Apparently, the demoted drone operators were sent to death in the same location.

Some bloggers seem to hint that there were other dirty secrets. Drug trafficking was rampant and the evil kompolk not only tolerated it, but he profiteered from it. There was also embezzlement of the crowdfunded goods. What can you expect from someone who literally calls himself “The Evil One”?

Now, if you think Russia and Ukraine are equally evil, try to find a similar story on the Ukrainian side. The closest one you can get is the scandal in certain unit when trained artillerymen were used as regular infantry, because there were no artillery shells for them. But this ended with the demotion of the commander who gave this order.

This is not the case with the death of Goodwin and his friends. “The Evil One” is not demoted, and while the case is being investigated, so far the investigation is focused on intimidating the witnesses. Once again, it’s not my imagination, I quote it from Russian milbloggers. Probably this will end up like the other notorious cases from Donbas - if anyone gets punished, it’s the witness, not the perpetrator.

“Puzik The Evil one” is not being demoted from commandeering the unit, on the contrary, he is now forcing his subordinates to write identical statements in his support - laments Saponkov (via Saponkov TG channel)

I would like this story (with all the juicy details!) to be known to the people who “support Russia” without a faintest clue of what Russia really is. It is fairly safe to “support Russia” from far away - as far as can be - but if someone is crazy enough to actually come to Russia and volunteer, like one Russell Bentley (callsign Texas), sooner or later they will collide with the Donbas organized crime, posing as “police” and “army”.

Russel “Texas” Bentley, a person stupid enough to actually go to Russia to help Russia - ended up killed by Russia. What a pretty Darwin prize! Via Youtube channel of Russian propaganda servive, The Grayzone

You can be an anarchist, trotskyist or radical ecologist, and hate capitalism, bourgeois democracy, NATO and European Union. But you actually need these institutions to protect your right to be an anarchist, trotskyist or radical ecologist. You don’t expect Putin or Lukashenko providing you that liberty, do you?

If Russia comes to your place, it’s not like they gonna let you keep on living like you’d want to. You will make an easy prey to the people like “The Evil One”. If he doesn’t care about the lives of his own people - how much hesitation do you expect from him before robbing and killing you?