A man who came out to protest in Moscow against mobilization got detained and handed a mobilization order at the police station, his wife told Kholod. “The commissar personally handed it, they filmed saying he could not help but accept it, because he is a Russian citizen.”
A law aiming to punish Russian soldiers who are trying to leave the frontline and adding “during martial law” as an aggravating circumstance just sailed through Russian parliament, fueling speculation that some sort of mobilization (perhaps a limited one) may soon happen.
Russia-installed officials in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions asked Moscow to hold a referendum and “reunite” with Russia.
Simonyan: “based on what is happening and still about to happen, this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory, or the eve of nuclear war.”
Not clear of course what kind of/if any mobilization there would be but it appears that Moscow is hatching some plan to hit back after recent losses near Kharkiv.
Full English translation of the video purporting to show Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine as part of Wagner private military company. Absolutely bonkers if it's really him.
"In the private military company I have fire support platoons and other units that provide the offensive. We have aircraft of several types, MLRS, tanks, there is everything you need in order to for an effective offensive.
"Those who move forward, those who are the most brazen, they survive more often. Everyone who backs down and does not understand what to do, of course, they get into a scramble... All dead, the bodies are being delivered to locations that you indicate in your will."
The video of supposedly Prigozhin recruiting convicts for Wagner PMC confirms some of the previous reporting but also reveals some really interesting new bits. First of all, to my knowledge this would be the first time we hear him on record saying he represents Wagner. 1/4
Then, he says that the first convicts that fought in Ukraine as part of Wagner was on June 1 at the Vuhlehirska power station in Sivatodarsk — that was the first big public acknowledgement of Wagner's key role in the invasion, they even got a state TV special parading the win 2/4
June also further corroborates Gulagu Net data that it was the 2nd wave of recruitment in prisons. First one was done earlier in the spring but was much smaller and focused, taking place in colonies for former policemen and military officers with prior service experience 3/4
A pretty telling Telegram post Zakhar Prilepin reposted from a fell staunch pro-Z blogger that reflects the fury drawn by the way Russian forces performed in Eastern Ukraine. “The events in the Kharkiv direction can rightfully be called a catastrophe.” Selected bits below:
What is happening is now inevitable but these events have been in motion for months…
Unfortunately, in the "special military operation" it became a norm to ignore tough challenges based on a ridiculous principle “if I don't see it's not happening."
“We often talk about weak intelligence capabilities - but in this case, the signals went through all channels, both military and special.
Now we can observe the result of the criminal irresponsibility of those who were responsible for this direction [among Rus forces]”
Wow. A car belonging to Alexander Dugin, right-wing theorist that had an influence on Putin’s views, was blown up last night near Moscow. His daughter died. Baza reports he was supposed to be in the car but changed his plan last minute
So far there is no reliable info about who/why but this nevertheless a huge development. Dugin is at least partially credited with shaping the now govt narrative around Ukraine as a path towards Russian restoration and sort of a “spiritual battle” it wages
Daria Dugina was also following her father’s steps and made various appearances recently discussing Ukraine and how she believes “large parts of it would accept the Eurasian empire.” More on who Dugin is: washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/0…
❗️The Russian Ministry of Defense decided to "drastically reduce" military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv direction.
The signals about scaling back the operation are getting more serious.
There are obviously reasons to be skeptical of this and it’s all “belive it when you see it.” However, the scaling back narrative is becoming more consistent. Today Rus delegation said it is prepared to take “two steps” towards Ukraine in deescalation.
1) the ‘drastic reduction’ of military activities in Kyiv and Chernihiv directions 2) potential meeting between Zelensky, Putin, Ukraine’s security guarantors that is to go simultaneously with the FMs initialing the peace treaty.
So 👀👀👀