1/ People across Russia are freezing in their homes in temperatures as low as -38°C because essential utility workers have been mobilised – even after the supposed end of mobilisation – and sent to Ukraine, hindering repair and maintenance work at home. ⬇️
2/ The "We can explain" Telegram channel reports that several regions and cities in Russia, including Astrakhan, Krasnodar and Rostov, are suffering problems with their communal heating systems because the engineers responsible for maintaining them have been mobilised.
3/ A source in Astrakhan's municipal services says: "We have appealed to the military registration and enlistment offices and officials, explaining that the heating season is coming soon and we need people, but we never received a clear answer."
4/ Despite being engineers, most of the mobilised workers were used as infantry. They were "told to hold a difficult section of the front, although there were no professional soldiers among our men, some had just finished their military studies, others were already in their 40s."
5/ Some of the men, who were fighting near the village of Mirolyubivka, were forgotten about by their commanders during the retreat from Kherson. They were left behind, resulting in them being captured by the Ukrainians.
6/ Two of the municipal workers were sent to serve with engineering forces near Kherson, then subsequently sent for training in Belarus before they are due to return to Crimea to build defences there.
7/ The source notes that the men were given draft notices even after the partial mobilisation was claimed to have ended. Essential workers are supposed to be exempt from mobilisation, but military officials have widely ignored such exemptions.
8/ Problems with heating have been reported across Russia, exacerbated by a lack of engineering personnel. Residents of Novosibirsk were left without heating in mid-November in temperatures of -30°C due to a damaged pipeline.
9/ 270 apartment blocks housing 70,000 people in Abakan faced a similar problem around the same time. At Artemovsky, a heating breakdown lasted for several days in temperatures of -38°C. /end
1/ Russian warbloggers are advocating various ways of taking revenge on Ukraine, but Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist and propagandist Dmitry Steshin has proposed an option which even the warbloggers aren't sure about: nuking Chornobyl. ⬇️
2/ Responding to another channel's complaint that the West isn't taking Russia's nuclear threats seriously, Steshin suggests:
3/ "Why not use tactical nuclear weapons in the 30-kilometer Chernobyl "exclusion zone" to demonstrate Russian restraint? Seriously, use it as much as you want!"
1/ A Russian deserter has described how Russian evacuation teams loot bodies for items to trade for alcohol and leave the wounded to die. He had most of his teeth pulled out to force him to join a stormtrooper squad, after which he deserted and fled to Germany. ⬇️
2/ 34-year-old Anton Shirshin says he was forced by the Russian police to sign a military contract after he crashed his car and ended up with a 200,000 ruble ($2,500) debt which he couldn't pay off. Despite being rated unfit for service, he was told if he could walk he was fit.
3/ Shirshin was sent for a week of 'training', consisting of firing two clips from an automatic rifle, before he was sent to the front. His commander decided he would be more of a danger with a weapon to his own side than to the enemy and assigned him to evacuation duty instead.
1/ Foreign-made components in Russian Kilo-class submarines in the Black Sea Fleet have reportedly been systematically stripped out and replaced with Russian or Chinese components. However, this is said to have resulted in corruption and significant problems with reliability. ⬇️
2/ In the mid-2010s, Russia undertook a major project to upgrade the design of its Kilo-class submarines with new systems. 11 new Project 636.3 ("Improved Kilo II") boats were launched between 2013 and 2024, with another 5 currently either on order or under construction.
3/ According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, the new systems incorporated foreign components, presumably imported from Western countries. This practice ceased in 2022 when technology sanctions were imposed following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
1/ Russia's use of frontline 'combat donkeys' is backfiring, according to Russian warbloggers. They say that the animals' large thermal signature is allowing the Ukrainians to track them easily and expose hidden Russian positions. ⬇️
2/ The Russian army has been using donkeys to replace vehicles in frontline logistics since at least the start of 2025. The thread below is a compilation of reports of donkey use on the front in Ukraine.
3/ A recent appearance by General Andrey Kartapolov on the 'Solovyov Live' show on the Russia 1 TV channel has attracted ridicule from warbloggers due to the general's claim that the donkeys don't get noticed because Ukrainian operators mistake them for roe deer.
1/ The Russian Air Force's inability to protect its aircraft against Ukrainian drones is symptomatic of its neglected status within the Russian armed forces, according to a prominent milblogger linked to the air force. He says it is afflicted by "desperation and poverty". ⬇️
2/ The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which is believed to be run by a former Russian Air Force captain, comments that "the [Aerospace Forces] Commander-in-Chief could not do anything in the current situation" because of a chronic lack of resources.
3/ "The Aerospace Forces Commander-in-Chief cannot even get themselves normal "Pantsirs" [anti-aircraft missile systems] in the required quantity to protect combat airfields. Which are subordinate to them.
1/ A Russian military journalist says that Russian manufacturers won't produce electronic warfare drones because "the more UAVs shot down at the front, the more orders they have". It's said to illustrate how they treat the war as a get-rich-quick scheme. ⬇️
2/ Alexey Sukonkin quotes a correspondent on how the developers of a flying electronic warfare system, created in 2023, have found a complete lack of interest from Russian drone manufacturers despite the increasing threat from Ukrainian drones:
3/ "Our subscriber saw full-scale exhibits and heard a speech by the authors of the development at the Army-2023 exhibition – an unmanned aerial system for electronic suppression of FPV drones.