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/ Tuapse is on fire again, and once again Russians are asking why their air defences are so inadequate. Prominent Russian drone developer Alexey Chadayev blames the lack of any clearly defined responsibility for air defence.
2/ Chadayev is the head of the Ushkuynik Research and Production Centre, a leading Russian drone development group. In a commentary on his Telegram channel, he highlights how disorganisation and unclear responsibilities are undermining Russian air defences.
3/ This is in marked contrast to Ukraine, where the Ukrainian Air Force is responsible for a highly organised, multi-layered, hybrid system which incorporates sophisticated detection systems with dispersed and mobile countermeasures. Russia has never been able to replicate this.
1/ The Russian officer who oversaw the occupation of Bucha in 2022, during which an estimated 458 Ukrainians were murdered, has been targeted by a bomb attack in the Russian Far East. Major General Azatbek Omurbekov's condition is currently unknown; another officer was killed. ⬇️
2/ According to VChK-OGPU, the attack took place on 28 April at a military garrison located in the village of Knyaze-Volkonskoye-1 in the Khabarovsk Krai. A bomb exploded in a mailbox, killing Lieutenant Colonel Kuzmenko, the commander of the training communications battalion.
3/ The target appears to have been Major General Azatbek Omurbekov, who has been the head of the 392nd District Training Centre for Junior Specialists of the Eastern Military District since 2023.
1/ Downloads of VPNs have soared by 1,300% in Russia as citizens try en masse to circumvent government blocks on popular apps like Telegram. As a Russian commentator warns, this is likely to lead to the government criminalising VPN use in the near future. ⬇️
2/ Yuri Baranchik writes about how Russians are adapting to a "digital concentration camp":
"According to media reports, VPN app downloads in Russia have increased 14-fold in one year (!). From March 2025 to March 2026, 35.7 million downloads were recorded on Google Play alone."
3/ "January-March 2026 were the peak download months: downloads reached 21.27 million in the first quarter. By the end of 2025, the active user base of the top 5 most popular VPN services in Russia had grown to 7.3 million.
1/ The acting US Ambassador to Ukraine is to resign over differences with the Trump Administration, becoming the second ambassador to do so in just over a year, and the third to resign under Donald Trump. She is said to be frustrated at Trump's lack of support for Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ The Financial Times reports that Julie Davis will leave her post in the next few weeks and retire from the diplomatic service. She has been serving simultaneously as ambassador to Cyprus and Ukraine, but is based in Kyiv.
3/ Davis is said to have been blindsided by Trump's decision to nominate Republican donor John Breslow to be the next ambassador to Cyprus. The State Department has been sidelined in diplomacy in Ukraine, with Trump allies like Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner leading instead.
1/ Russian warbloggers are increasingly speculating about what will happen after the war ends and/or the fall of Putin. They predict chaos, disorderly struggles, repression, and not least their own violent elimination. ⬇️
2/ In a since-deleted post, Maxim Kalashnikov sees gloomy prospects ahead for Russia:
3/ “I believe that after the Transition (change of the central figure of power), as a result of this untriumphant war, a period of chaos and instability is inevitable.
No matter what “Sukharev conventions” are signed by the highest beau monde these days. What do I predict?
1/ North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, has praised his country's soldiers who killed themselves in Russia rather than surrendering to Ukrainian forces. Speaking at a memorial event, he has commended their "self-blasting". Only two North Koreans were taken alive by Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ In a speech given on 27 April 2026 at the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, which commemorates the North Korean troops who died fighting against Ukraine's 2024-25 incursion into Russia, Kim spoke of their willingness to commit suicide.
3/ They did not seek "any reward for their self-sacrifice through self-blasting" but "carr[ied] out the order given by the Party, as they fell in action shedding blood, and prayed only for their country’s prosperity shouting “Long live Pyongyang!” as they died a heroic death...