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/ Denmark was preparing to fight the United States over Greenland, according to Scandinavian news reports. Around 1,000 Danish troops and a frigate with anti-ship and anti-aircraft capabilities are being sent to Greenland, with standing orders to fight invading forces. ⬇️
2/ Prior to Donald Trump's apparent climbdown after the recent Davos summit, Denmark planned to send around 1,000 soldiers to Greenland during 2026. Around 300 have already arrived in Kangerlussuaq and Nuuk, supplemented by a French mountain infantry unit.
3/ Denmark has also deployed the frigate Peter Willemoes, which has advanced anti-aircraft and anti-ship capabilities, to patrol off western Greenland. The deployment will release ice-capable Thetis-class patrol vessels to operate nearer inshore.
1/ While Kyiv freezes under Russian bombardment, on the other side of the front line an occupied Ukrainian city of 100,000 is also freezing – this time due to Russian corruption and neglect. Russian warbloggers say that the situation is catastrophic. ⬇️
2/ Inhabitants of Alchevsk in the Luhansk region – which has been under Russian occupation since 2014 – have been writing in desperation to anyone who will listen to plead for help with a disastrous heating situation which they say has been ongoing since October 2025.
3/ Warblogger Sergei Kolyasnikov says that he is receiving "dozens of ... letters. Day after day" describing the problems being faced by residents, who say they are still being charged for heating that they are not receiving from the city's central heating system.
1/ Russian air defence soldiers complain that they are being paid as little as $133 a week and that the Russian government is failing to pay them bonuses promised for shooting down Ukrainian drones. Not surprisingly, this isn't helping morale. ⬇️
2/ 'Two Majors' writes:
"The enemy launches over a hundred drones daily into our regions. And not all of them are included in public statistics: many are shot down, for example, over the Zaporizhzhia region [of Ukraine]."
3/ "Therefore, an adequate solution to the problems of air defence personnel and mobile fire teams is an important and necessary task. We were told (some time ago):
1/ The Russian army has adopted infiltration tactics to slip past Ukrainian defences, dividing platoons into a handful of men who advance as far as they can, entrench, and await reinforcements. A Russian warblogger comments on this tactic's limitations. ⬇️
2/ This change of approach since 2024 has enabled Russia to advance slowly, though still generating heavy losses along the way. 'Archangel Spetsnaz' writes:
"Indeed, assault tactics have changed dramatically."
3/ "The wide range of detection and engagement systems and means has, figuratively speaking, "brought to its knees the old tactics," whereby company/battalion-sized offensives were carried out at the frontier.
1/ Huge numbers of Russian soldiers are dying unnecessarily in Ukraine because commanders at every level are falsifying claims of success, according to Russian warbloggers. "To back up their words, they're sending people to their deaths," says one front-line soldier. ⬇️
2/ The image above is an extract from an official Russian Ministry of Defence map showing a completely fictional front line around Kupyansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Commanders falsely reported having taken settlements around the city before it was regained by Ukraine.
3/ Russian commentators call this practice "taking on credit" (as in amassing credit card debt). Commanders have both financial and career motivations for making false reports of success, which are relayed all the way up to Vladimir Putin himself.
1/ A poetry reading by Russian ultra-nationalists in Krasnodar has been violently suppressed by Russian security forces, much to the dismay of their online supporters. The incident highlights how much Putin's regime fears being outflanked from the nationalist right. ⬇️
2/ Members and supporters of the National Bolshevik movement, founded by the late poet and Soviet-era dissident Eduard Limonov, were holding a regularly scheduled reading of Limonov's works in Krasnodar on 17 January when they were interrupted by a law enforcement raid.
3/ According to the 'Carefree Carpenter Z' Telegram channel, "Everything was proceeding as usual when operatives from the regional "Centre E" and the FSB, armed with automatic rifles, burst into the loft space specially rented for the event."