1/ Soldiers returning home to Russia after fighting in Ukraine are reportedly responsible for an increasing number of violent incidents, including fights and shootings. However, the Russian courts are being very lenient towards offenders, dismaying and frustrating civilians. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian news outlet 'We can explain' ('MO') reports on what it calls 'special military operation syndrome' – the rising incidence of violence committed by returning soldiers. It's likely that many are suffering from untreated PTSD.
3/ Many incidents have been reported but have only resulted in light punishments from the courts, including:
4/ 🔴 "60,000 rubles ($803) for assaulting a member of the National Guard. The other day a Voronezh court passed a very mild sentence – a military man who hit and insulted a guardsman several times got away with a fine. The incident took place in a Voronezh hotel in September.
5/ The Russian Federal Guard Service was called by the staff, as the guest was behaving inappropriately. It came down to a fight, and the law enforcers made a concerted effort to get the troublemaker off.
6/ 🔴 In July 2022, a man threatened passers-by with a shotgun in Elektrostal, near Moscow. He said he had recently arrived from Ukraine and "they shot him there".
7/ 🔴 September 2022: In Tula, a military man beat up a pizzeria owner with a chair. The reason for the attack, according to the hooligan, was that he was not shown "enough respect" at the pizzeria.
8/ 🔴 In January 2023, a man in camouflage came with a Kalashnikov assault rifle to a nightclub and pointed the weapon at people standing on the stairs.
9/ 🔴 The loudest and most tragic event involving a serviceman returned from Ukraine took place in Kostroma. On November 5, Stanislav Ionkin, 23, who had been wounded, fired a flare gun at the Polygon nightclub (the incident was not captured on video).
10/ A fire broke out in the premises, killing 13 people."
MO notes that there have also been many incidents of weapons smuggling – Russia has strict gun control laws which returning soldiers have repeatedly violated.
11/ Since February 2022, it reports, "at least 42 Russian servicemen have been put on trial for misappropriation, storage, transportation and carrying of weapons, ammunition and explosive devices".
12/ There has also been a murder case: "in Udmurtia, according to investigators, in the course of a drinking bout in a garage, a comrade who had returned from the war shot his friend in the eye and then strangled him with a wire. The trial began on 9 February." /end
1/ Russian army commanders are reportedly refusing to allow stored ZSU-23-4 Shilkas mobile anti-aircraft guns to be refurbished and put back into service, despite Russia's desperate need for more defences against Ukraine's increasingly large-scale drone strikes. ⬇️
2/ 'The Voivode Broadcasts', a Telegram channel written by three Russian Aerospace Force pilots, writes:
"I was talking to some guys from one of the repair battalions the other day."
3/ "They were showing us what Category 5 [the lowest condition] equipment they're getting off its knees with their own resources.
BMPs [armoured personnel carriers], BTS [armoured recovery tractors], and so on.
1/ Russia has "shot itself in the dick" with its block on Telegram, according to a scathing commentary. A Russian warblogger notes that pro-Kremlin propagandists have seen huge falls in views of their Telegram channels, but not dissident and pro-Ukraine channels. ⬇️
2/ Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Dmitry Steshin calls it "a day of celebration for foreign agents, as the audience for pro-Russian channels on Telegram has plummeted."
3/ "Margarita Simonyan saw a 52.3% drop, while propagandist Alexander Sladkov saw a 49.4% drop. Views for ‘RT in Russian’ fell by 42%, whilst those for propagandists Vladimir Solovyov and Pavel Zarubin fell by 47.2% and 42.7% respectively.
1/ In a further sign of an economic slump in Russia, the giant vehicle manufacturer AvtoVAZ will shut down production entirely for 17 days due to falling demand and overcrowded warehouses. Its vehicles aren't selling and storage facilities are overflowing. ⬇️
2/ The Russian news outlet Mash reports that AvtoVAZ will shut down its assembly lines for almost the entire period from 27 April to 17 May, with the workforce sent on mandatory leave.
3/ Workers will be sent to do maintenance work between 27-30 April, 12-13 May will be covered by a postponement of vacation days from December, and staff will be paid at two-thirds their normal salary on 14-15 May.
1/ Brutally murdering women in front of their children has effectively been legalised in Russia, due to the Russian government's policy of allowing pre-trial detainees to go to Ukraine to fight rather than facing justice. A horrific case from Voronezh highlights the problem. ⬇️
2/ Madina Nikolaevna Mironenko, a 42-year-old soldier's widow and mother of four children, was dragged out of her house by her hair and stabbed to death by a masked neighbour, in front of her nine-year-old daughter. Another neighbour witnessed the attack and recognised the man.
3/ A group of soldiers' relatives in Voronezh has written an open letter to the authorities:
"There are 220 of us (each of us can write to you personally if necessary), we are relatives of those who, at the call and behest of their hearts,…
1/ The late governor of Russia's Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, is said to have received huge cash bribes in grocery bags of food and alcohol, and stole 100 million rubles ($1.2 million) from the budget assigned to build fortifications along the border with Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ Starovoit, who shot himself on 7 July 2025 shortly before he was due to be charged for fraud, has been the subject of testimony given by Alexey Smirnov, his also-indicted deputy and successor. Smirnov says that he and his own deputy also took bribes.
3/ The fortifications were swept aside with ease by Ukrainian forces when they invaded the Kursk region in August 2024. Subsequent Russian investigations found that much of the money allocated to the defences had been stolen.
1/ Austria has become the latest European country to ban US military overflights related to the Iran war. The country's Defence Ministry has announced that it has refused "several" requests from the US government, citing Austria's Neutrality Law.
2/ A statement issued by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence says that it will not let the US use its airspace for military operations against Iran. Individual requests for overflights are being reviewed in consultation with the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
3/ According to Colonel Michael Bauer, "There have indeed been requests and they were refused from the outset". He adds that every time a similar request "involves a country at war, it is refused."