1/ If Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had succeeded in 2022, Ukraine's industries would have been seized and taken over by Russian oligarchs. A leaked document shows that oligarch Konstantin Malofeev intended to create a 'DMZ Concern' from Ukraine's largest plants. ⬇️
2/ Malofeev is a billionaire who is a close supporter of Vladimir Putin and an aggressive promotor of religious conservatism. He's an overt monarchist who reportedly sees Putin as a new Tsar, and has links with far-right parties and individuals in Europe and the US.
3/ The EU, US and Canada have sanctioned Malofeev for trying to destabilise Ukraine and finance separatism. He's closely linked to pro-Russian separatists and was the former employer of Igor Girkin. He's been accused of funding radical nationalist movements across Europe.
4/ The DMZ Concern document, a presentation possibly dated 30 May 2022, was published recently by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. It sets out a business plan for the "expansion of production assets based on the results of the Special Military Operation".
5/ The first slide shows what appears to be the intended territorial division of a defeated Ukraine, with the whole of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts – up to the Moldovan and Romanian borders – under Russian control.
6/ This would have stripped Ukraine of its entire coastline, all its ports and much of its heavy industry, hydroelectric and mineral resources. It would have become an economically devastated and landlocked rump state, likely under the control of a pro-Russian puppet government.
7/ Slide 2 describes the 'DMZ concern' as a vastly expanded version of the existing Donetsk Metallurgical Plant (DMZ) company, which operates mines and other industrial enterprises in the 'Donetsk People's Republic'. It states a goal of achieving:
8/ "consolidation of existing financial, economic, technical and market opportunities of enterprises of key industries in the liberated territories of the DPR, LPR and Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions, which form the [economic] basis of the south-east region of the former Ukraine."
9/ After listing DMZ's existing holdings on slide 4 (#3 is missing), slide 5 of the plan lists "enterprises located in the liberated territories [that] are possible [candidates] for integration" with DMZ. They include some of Europe's largest mining and mineral processing plants.
10/ These include the Marganets Mining and Processing plant and the Nikopol Ferroalloy plant (both in Dnipropetrovsk oblast), the Zaporizhstal steel plant in Zaporizhzhia oblast and others. Slide 7 discusses a number of additional Ukrainian factories being considered for seizure.
11/ Slides 5.1 and 5.2 indicate that this was not just a theoretical exercise – the plan was already well advanced. Legal work had been done and management agreements had been signed as part of a three-stage plan to be carried out through 2022–2027.
12/ Interestingly, slide 5.3 lists among various business and growth goals for the 2023–2027 period an objective of achieving "Entry into the markets of friendly and sub-allied countries of Eurasian Economic Union, Middle East (Iran, Syria), South-East Asia, Turkey and Africa."
13/ The plan sets out a goal of aligning the DMZ Concern with a "strategic partner" (presumably Russian) and inclusion of its enterprises in "the state programmes of the Russian Federation." It also raises the possible takeover of Odesa port to serve DMZ.
14/ The end result, anticipated on slide 8, is the "reactivation of cooperation and activities of enterprises in the key sectors of the liberated territories of the DPR, LPR and south-eastern Ukraine…
15/ …in the form of a cumulative increase in annual financial indicators from RUR 70 billion [$990 million] (data for 2021) to RUR 220 billion [$3.1 billion] by 2024." This would achieve the "creation of a major enterprise in the interests of the Russian Federation."
16/ The slide indirectly acknowledges the impact of the DNR's large-scale mobilisation of fighting-age men, most of whom are now likely dead, by describing a goal of the "preservation of 8,616 jobs (excluding those mobilized)". It anticipates having over 16,000 workers by 2024.
17/ The plan doesn't specify where the extra workers would come from, but it's likely that – as has happened in Crimea – large numbers of people would be relocated from Russia to repopulate Ukraine's south-east, replacing the Ukrainians who have fled or been deported from there.
18/ Needless to say, the Ukrainian owners of the seized enterprises would not have received a kopek in compensation. With their collective value of billions of dollars, Malofeev was planning arguably the biggest heist in history – though it's now hopefully been thwarted. /end
1/ Yuri Kozarenko, the high-profile Russian drone developer who was arrested last Friday on fraud charges, is being accused of passing off Chinese products as his own. Other Russian UAV developers say that his firm was notorious for "brazen relabeling of products from China." ⬇️
2/ The video above shows a drone claimed by Kozarenko's company to be its 'Quadcopter Krechet' model. It's actually a Chinese-made Autel EVO MAX 4T, which has been relabelled as a Russian-made product without even any cosmetic modifications to disguise its origins.
3/ Kozarenko's arrest (see the thread below) is being greeted with glee by Russian UAV specialists who have been accusing his company, Transport of the Future (TB), of fraud for at least the past year.
1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin thinks things are terrible in Russia, which is "being beaten and will continue to be beaten" and is being "humiliated before the entire world" due to the failures of "the cretins in power." He also ridicules his prison's motley Victory Day parade. ⬇️
2/ In a letter to a friend, posted on his Telegram channel, he writes:
3/ "[T]he forecast we made at the start of 2026 has been fully vindicated: “We are being beaten and will continue to be beaten.” — On all fronts and in all directions. (Including—and in the literal sense—on the active front.)
1/ The Russian ultranationalist community has exploded into a fit of apoplectic rage over Volodymr Zelenskyy's decree 'permitting' Russia to hold its Victory Day parade. They condemn it as a humiliation for Russia and call for maximum retaliation. ⬇️
2/ Russian Telegram channels have had a meltdown over Zelenskyy's decree declaring Red Square to be off-limits for attacks on 9th May in order "to permit the holding of a parade in the city of Moscow (Russian Federation)." Many helpfully translate it for their readers.
3/ 'DSHRG Rusych' grumbles: "Is this denazification or demilitarisation? (We can't figure it out)."
'Novorossiya militia reports' is furious: "Is this what the Russian government was aiming for?"
1/ A recent video filmed by Russian soldiers shows Ukrainian AI-controlled Hornet drones hunting for Russian targets near Mariupol. A Russian UAV specialist warns that advanced AI processing will soon turn the Hornet into a fully automated system. ⬇️
2/ Ukraine introduced the US-designed Hornet into large-scale battlefield use in the last few months. It is already being described by the Russians as a game-changer and a severe threat to their rear logistics, due to its advanced design and AI systems.
2/ This photo shows the Project 06363 (Kilo class) submarine Mozhaisk and Project 877EKM (Kilo class, built for tropical waters) submarine Dmitrov, equipped with anti-drone protection, in Kronstadt near St. Petersburg.
3/ The first submarine's defensive armament consists of a heavy machine gun, likely intended for use against unmanned surface vessels (USVs), which is mounted on a turret aft of the keel, and a searchlight on the navigation bridge.
1/ A high-profile figure in Russian drone development has been arrested on charges of large-scale fraud. It's another illustration of how Russia's pervasive corruption is hampering its efforts to become a leading developer and producer of drone technology. ⬇️
2/ On Friday 8 May, the Sverdlovsky District Court of Belgorod arrested Yuri Kozarenko, former CEO of Transport of the Future LLC, and sent him to a pre-trial detention centre. He is under investigation for alleged large-scale fraud; details have not yet been released.
3/ Kozarenko, 36, is a native of the Belgorod region and did his military service in the Russian Naval Infantry (Marines). He joined the EFKO Group of Companies in 2012 and rose to become the head of the corporate university and innovation centre.