A McMillan TAC50 being sighted in last summer just outside of Zhamianka.
On the open plains of the south, sub-machineguns are pretty useless, so you don't see them there. But in the densely wooded forest along the border with Belarus, things are a bit different. Tank and vehicle crews there often have handy SMGs, such as this crewman and his Swedish K back in November.
Back last year when it appeared the whole country was about to be overrun, even the museum pieces were handed out to arm folks. Here, in Chernihiv, circa May 2022, a medic and a fellow reservist pose with their PPS43 and SVT40, which each appear to have never been issued.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU or СБУ) is a lot like Homeland Security and is tasked with border patrolling. In mountainous terrain like that along the border with Transnitria, where there is a heavy Russian contingent sitting out the war so far, horseback is the most efficient and stealthy way to perform that task. Currently, things are quiet on the western side of the country where this СБУ stable is located. But there
is a war on, and there's over 10,000 Russians just a few miles away, so even the horse groomers are ready to rock at a moment's notice.
A Russian Spetsnatz trooper shows off his PB Makarov.
Members of the Russian elite have been criticized by many Russians for enabling their sons to evade mobilization or war service. They have reportedly found an ingenious solution – a special unit for the elite, which serves at a safe distance from the front. The Russian military reserves, known as БАРС or BARS, which stands for Combat Army Reserve of the Country, has a special unit called Cascade (Каскад), specially just for the kids of the elite and elite themselves. They spend most of their 1-month tours in occupied Donetsk doing administrative civil service stints, planting trees or clearing rubble. The closest any of them come to actually fighting is piloting some drones. However, to ensure the public back home sees them serving heroically, they get photo ops dressed up in "captured" NATO uniforms, gear and weapons, so as to show them supposedly acting as covert spec ops hard core heroes, outfitted with the spoils of their exploits, including M4 carbines and FN/FALs, looking more like they just stepped out of the Peruvian jungle in 1993 rather than 2023 Ukraine. Remember Al Gore's posed photos from Vietnam, making him look like he was out running missions in Charlie's backyard? Well,...these are the future Russian political players, getting their legends created for their future careers.
