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/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin predicts that Russia will be stripped to the bone – "IN THE EVENT OF DEFEAT, THEY WILL TAKE EVERYTHING FROM US—UP TO AND INCLUDING NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND SOVEREIGNTY" – in a long and deeply gloomy commentary posted on Telegram. ⬇️
2/ Girkin, who is currently in a prison for former security officials in the Kirov region, analyses the deteriorating situation in the war and warns that Russia is not going to end up in a good place:
3/ "Having taken a breather during the so-called "ceasefire," the enemy has begun a long-planned campaign to "isolate the front from the rear to great depth ," as many observers and authors have quite correctly noted.
1/ Russia's corrupt elites are drinking 'Long Epstein Island' cocktails in St Petersburg while soldiers and civilians die, Crimea is effectively cut off, the Donbas is under constant attack, and Russian defenders struggle, an angry Russian warblogger complains. ⬇️
2/ Anger and contempt at the excesses of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has become a widespread theme among Russian warbloggers, who almost all regard it as an expensive distraction from an increasingly difficult war.
3/ 'Ural PartiZan' writes:
"The elites [at the SPIEF] increasingly look like bourgeois citizens feasting on champagne-drenched pineapples and cold-smoked hazel grouse in 1917.
1/ Whatever Russian officials thinks they're achieving by hosting far-right influencer @RealCandaceO in St Petersburg, it's lost on Russia's warbloggers, who say they're dying of cringe. "They probably even licked the ass of that Yankee scum," one says appreciatively. ⬇️
2/ 'Belarusian Silovik' observes sarcastically:
"American journalist Candace Owens, who attended the SPIEF, posted a photo on X with Russian journalists who surrounded her.
Of course, she's a REAL AMERICAN."
3/ 'Pozdnyakov 3.0' wonders what on earth the Russian media is thinking: "American journalist Candace Owens posted a photo on her Twitter account where all the Russian media outlets vied with each other because she's an American, OH MY GOD, FROM AMERICA ITSELF. 😱😱😱😱😱"
1/ Vladimir Putin's unconvincing claim that Russia deliberately targeted a 'barn' in Ukraine to test the $50 million Oreshnik missile has produced scorn and incredulity among Russian warbloggers. "Fucking hell," says one flabbergasted warblogger. ⬇️
2/ On 24 May, Russia fired two Oreshnik IRBMs at Ukraine, with inert warheads. One demolised a garage complex at Bila Tservka near Kyiv; the other, embarassingly, fell short and landed in Russian-held territory.
3/ Speaking yesterday, Putin claimed that the garages (which he called "barns" for some reason) had been deliberately targeted to test the missile's accuracy. Russian warbloggers are not convinced, to put it mildly.
"Fucking hell", comments 'The Voivode Broadcasts'.
1/ A "time bomb" has detonated under Russian rumps. Botched attempts in the early 1990s to replicate Brazilian butt lifts are now disintegrating inside Russian backsides, causing buttocks to 'literally melt'. ⬇️
2/ 'Baza' reports:
"Thirty years later, the first post-Soviet buttock augmentations have become a shapeless mess and caused a ton of discomfort to their "owners."
3/ "Although thinness was popular among Russian women at the time, some dreamed of a "Brazilian butt" and opted for injections to achieve it. The procedure took only 20 minutes, and doctors didn't particularly bother with recovery.
1/ Ukraine appears to have attacked Russian aircraft under cover in concrete shelters, likely with drones flown into the entrances. Details are as yet scant. ⬇️
2/ "The 'Helicopterpilot' Telegram channel, written by a Russian military helicopter pilot, predicted on 27 May that "judging by how the Ukrainians are progressing and methodically whacking our air defence systems, oil refineries, trucks, and military equipment along the…
3/ …"land corridor to Crimea," if they're given the go-ahead and a ration of missiles, the next targets will be the hardened aircraft shelters.
Personally, I see this trend.
And it's more like a "when" than an "if."
So I don't know where their "catastrophic situation" is.