1/ Citizens of the puppet 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DNR) are complaining en masse that they are not being paid their promised compensation for deaths and injuries caused to local residents by the war. The DNR itself admits that it owes more than 38 billion rubles ($467m). ⬇️
2/ Relatives and soldiers of the DNR's armed forces – which have been decimated due to being used as so-called 'meat waves' against Ukrainian positions – have been posting numerous videos complaining about the lack of compensation payments and appealing to Putin for help.
3/ In one video, a wife says: "Starting from September 2022, funding for lump-sum compensation for wounded and killed DNR servicemen for 2022 was terminated. We submitted documents to the commission of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of the DNR.
4/ "There are a lot of us. We applied to all authorities. From the presidential administration to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
5/ "All our appeals are forwarded to the government of the DNR, which redirects them to the Ministry of Labour, and the answers come from there that there is no funding. We write to the deputies and there are no results."
6/ According to the wife of one wounded soldier, his unit "collected all the necessary documents promptly, the medical examiner issued a conclusion of a severe injury.
7/ "In November we submitted all the documents for payment, and for seven months there have been no payments, the allowance during treatment is 30,000 rubles ($371). The answer is the same, there is no funding."
8/ People seeking compensation have complained to the DNR state prosecutor's office, which admitted that an audit had "established the fact of lack of funding for this type of payment, which requires an amount of more than 38 billion rubles."
9/ It's very unlikely that the DNR will be able to pay the sums it owes, as its finances are precarious, its economy is a mess and it's kept afloat only by Russian government funding.
10/ The Russian government has shown little concern previously for the welfare of DNR soldiers and their families, so there seems to be little likelihood that the relatives' video appeals will achieve much. /end
1/ Russian soldiers are reportedly being punished by being sent into assaults with anti-tank mines strapped to their bodies, made to dig their own graves for complaining, and risk death delivering New Year's Eve alcohol and caviar for their commanders.
2/ Andrei Vladimirovich Shekhovtsev, a member of the Russian 60th Separate motorised rifle brigade (military unit 16871), says that his commanders are systematically abusing, extorting and killing the men under their command.
3/ He says that his evacuation group was ordered on the night of 1 January 2026 to deliver alcohol and red caviar to a command position for a celebration. He refused, citing the danger of Ukrainian attacks. The order was reissued to some Russian drone operators instead.
1/ A Russian general notorious for his incompetence is said to have been in charge of providing military advice to the former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Russian warbloggers complain that failing generals are often sent abroad, to the detriment of their hosts. ⬇️
2/ Roman Saponkov writes that "it turns out that General [Oleg Leontyevich] Makarevich was an advisor in Venezuela at the time of the US operation."
3/ "If anyone didn't know, he's another one of our generals who turned out to be so incompetent that he was k̶i̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶l̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ removed from command in the Armed Forces.
1/ Donald Trump should be assassinated and US ships sunk in revenge for the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker, say angry Russian warbloggers. Others worry that the episode shows Russia's weakness and inability to protect its own interests, just like in Venezuela. ⬇️
2/ 'Hard Blog' and others say that Russia needs to be ready to go to war, as mere words won't be a sufficient response to such a serious provocation:
3/ "The US has shifted from covert operations to demonstrations of force and provocations, seeking confrontation with us and China. When you've invested so much in the armed forces, what's the point of keeping them on a leash?
1/ False claims by Russian commanders to have captured Ukrainian towns and villages – a practice known as 'taking on credit' – have likely cost thousands of Russian lives through 2025. A Russian commentary highlights some of the most egregious claims. ⬇️
2/ The map above, published on the Russian Ministry of Defence's Telegram channel, claims control of settlements near Kupyansk that were never in Russian hands. Similar official maps show the Russian front line kilometres ahead of where independent observers place it.
3/ As discussed in the thread below, Russian commanders have many personal incentives to falsely claim captures. The result is that soldiers are often sent without support to (re)capture settlements that are already claimed to be under Russian control.
1/ Could Russia's special forces have carried out America's Venezuela operation? Almost certainly not, admit Russian warbloggers, as they say that the US SOF have capabilities, scale, a level of organisation, and effective management that their Russian equivalents lack. ⬇️
2/ The spectacular success of the US special forces in capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has led to some sober reappraisals among Russian warbloggers of the relative effectiveness of Russian and American special forces.
3/ 'Special-purpose channel' comments that the Venezuelan operation was "aimed at one specific target. This wasn't part of a large-scale invasion, but rather, our favourite 'in and out' strategy."
1/ Elon Musk faces a spiralling worldwide crisis and growing legal jeopardy over child pornography and nonconsensual sexual images being generated through his Grok AI chatbot. Multiple countries and jurisdictions have now announced investigations into X and xAI. ⬇️
2/ As reported by Reuters, many thousands of AI-generated sexual images have appeared on X over the Christmas and New Year period. They include images of real women being digitally undressed, repositioned in sexual poses, and covered in simulated semen ('donut glaze').
3/ The images created through Grok by X users have also reportedly included sexualised images of pre-teen children as young as four years old.