1/ Mobilised Russians from Irkutsk are being sent "to slaughter" in Ukraine and have been told that they are "expendable". Their commanders have fired at them to 'motivate' them and their unit has taken so many casualties that it has had to be reconstituted six times. ⬇️
2/ In a video, the men say:
"Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], we turn to you [for help]. We are mobilised from the Irkutsk region, regiment 1439, we were sent to the Donetsk People's Republic from the city of Novosibirsk on 31 December 22.
3/ We ask for your assistance and to deal with the lawless and criminal orders of our command.
4/ We have been transferred to the First Slavic Brigade of the DPR, where they formed assault units out of us soldiers of the territorial defence in one day, sending us to storm the Avdiivka fortifications without any artillery support.
5/ Communications, sappers, reconnaissance have been sent to slaughter. Command told us directly that we are expendable, and that the only chance we have of returning home is getting injured. We do not know the names and ranks of the commanders, as they do not tell us.
6/ There is no point in contacting the local military prosecutor's office, as they are in full collusion with the commanders of the First Slavic Brigade. Soldiers of the battalions of regiment 1439 have already made two appeals before us.
7/ At this point this battalion has been almost completely destroyed. The remnants of the men have also been distributed to the First Slavic Brigade. Due to the situation, we find ourselves in a desperate situation, as the command is indifferent to our lives.
8/ The command is replenishing the unit with new mobilised for the sixth time - this is evidence of the incompetence of our superiors and of the whole unit. Please help. There is nowhere else to turn."
9/ The men have also written desperate text messages to relatives asking for help. They say they are being sent "without cover, without escort, none of the DPR fighters are sent. BMPs drop people off in the field." The BMPs are so unreliable that half broke down en route.
10/ The DPR commanders have reportedly fired from armoured vehicles at the Russian mobiks to 'motivate' them into attacking Ukrainian positions. "Yesterday the DNRovites shot from a BMP at the house [where the men were sheltering] because the guys refused to storm."
11/ Not surprisingly, the assaults have been a bloody debacle. "It's a madhouse, you can't fight like that," one man says. "Yesterday the whole detachment was put down with mortars. They didn't even reach the [Ukrainian] trenches." /end
1/ Russian-occupied Donetsk now exists under a state of "drone terror", says a local Russian inhabitant. Local influencer 'Donetsk MartynoVa' describes how normal life is grinding to a halt under relentless Ukrainian mid-range strikes. ⬇️
2/ As the thread below highlights, Ukraine's 'drone siege' of the occupied regions of the country ramped up quickly during May 2026 and has come to threaten Russia's control over the area through the decimation of Russian logistics.
1/ The Russian authorities are threatening to charge people who photograph military cemeteries with treason. It highlights how the Kremlin has become sensitive to cemeteries representing a potent symbol of Russia's huge losses in Ukriane. ⬇️
2/ 'Mobilization News' reports:
"Treason charges have been threatened for photographs of military graves in Yekaterinburg cemeteries."
3/ "Local cemetery administrations, in conjunction with the FSB, are preparing information signs that will be placed "on information boards at cemetery entrances and along visitor routes."
1/ A fuel crisis is growing in Russia, with soaring costs for gasoline, quotas on how much can be bought, and long queues at the pumps. Miroslava Reginskaya, wife of the imprisoned Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, highlights how shortages have become widespread and severe. ⬇️
2/ Reginskaya writes:
"The fuel crisis is steadily spreading across the country: reports of gasoline shortages at gas stations are already coming in from many regions."
3/ "In some places, this is a genuine fuel shortage, while in others, it's a result of retailers trying to profit from the difficult situation.
1/ The hot debate of the moment among Russian commentators is whether and how Russia will begin "fighting for real". Russia's former president openly calls for war crimes while others advocate striking the West, destroying Kyiv, killing Zelenskyy, and nuking Starlink. ⬇️
2/ Former Russian president and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev says on his channel on the Russian 'state messenger app' MAX that the laws of war no longer apply after Ukraine's drone attack on the Moscow Oil Refinery.
3/ "Given the enemy's massive terrorist attacks on our cities, the intensity of which is growing and will obviously continue to grow, it is time to openly declare that there are no longer, and cannot be, any rules regarding neo-Nazi Kyiv," he writes.
1/ Russian warbloggers have identified a new enemy in the aftermath of the Ukrainian drone attacks in Moscow: migrants, who have appeared in many videos of the strikes. They are calling for severe punishments of those who have violated the government's censorship regulations. ⬇️
2/ One of the most iconic videos from the attack, showing a fuel storage tank's lid being thrown high in the air by an explosion, was filmed by a Chinese migrant worker and posted on his TikTok channel.
"Migrants from fraternal China published a video of a surface-to-air missile (or a MANPADS missile) hitting a storage tank at a Moscow oil refinery. Now the footage is spreading across Chinese and global social media."
1/ Why do Russian anti-drone units fail shoot down drones? Russian drone developer Alexey Chadayev says they have numerous deficiencies, including bad communications, coordination, training, and drunkenness, that are undermining Russia's drone defences. ⬇️
"You can surround yourself with all sorts of equipment – radars, machine guns, state-of-the-art interceptors – and still miss an incoming aircraft simply because of a problem with the ‘padding between the steering wheel and the seat’.
3/ "– When mobile fire teams are afraid to shoot down drones (what if there's another one after them? What if it crashes somewhere wrong and gets called in?).
– When observers on duty are asleep or even drinking at their posts.