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/ Russia's air defence teams are manned by "homeless people, alcoholics, deserters, disabled people, idiots", complains a Russian warblogger. In the face of continued failures to stop Ukrainian drone attacks, urgent investment in robotic defence systems is advocated. ⬇️
2/ 'Military Chronicle' argues that "recent incidents involving the use of attack drones against targets in Moscow and Voronezh demonstrate that the human factor is becoming the most critical vulnerability in modern air defence systems."
3/ 'Dead Heads' explains that Russia's mobile fire teams are attracting the wrong kind of recruits: "We're forming Mobile Task Forces (MOGs) and assembling them by units: homeless people, alcoholics, 500s, disabled people, idiots – why aren't they shooting down anything?"
1/ The Russian warblogger 'Fighterbomber', a retired Russian air force pilot, is taking heavy flak from other warbloggers for disclosing a fuel delivery to Crimea that the Ukrainians promptly blew up. "Go fuck yourself. Preferably holding hands," he responds. ⬇️
2/ On 17 June, in an apparent attempt to refute widespread accounts of fuel shortages in Crimea, 'Fighterbomber' wrote on his Telegram channel: "The audience is saying that fuel has arrived in Crimea. Lots of it. There's more coming. 😍"
3/ Three days later, Ukrainian forces struck the Kerch oil terminal's fuel depot, causing a major fire. An official Ukrainian Telegram channel trolled Fighterbomber by crediting the warblogger for the strike (it's unlikely that he had any influence on it).
1/ Dozens of specialist workers were likely killed or wounded in today's Ukrainian strike in Voronezh. Russian warbloggers are dismayed, complain that the Russian government is ignoring it, and call for London to be nuked in retaliation. ⬇️
2/ Heavy missiles (it's not yet clear what type; the Russian warbloggers assume a UK/French Storm Shadow or SCALP/ER) have caused heavy damage and raging fires at the Voronezh Semiconductor Devices Plant, a vital element of Russia's missile production chain.
3/ The regional governor says that five people are known to have died, with dozens more injured. He says that while most were able to take shelter and survived, many ignored the alert and were caught up in the attack.
1/ Russian warbloggers complain that their readers are insufficiently enthusiastic about the disastrous war in Ukraine, following an outpouring of negative sentiment after the drone strikes on Moscow. "Social media has been a living hell since yesterday," one gripes. ⬇️
2/ Warblogger Andrey Antonov urges his readers not to believe what they're reading:
"Be vigilant! Social media has been a living hell since yesterday.
A coordinated campaign against our peace of mind is underway.
I saw the same thing in 2022, during Crocus, Kursk, and so on."
3/ "Your feed is flooded with nonsense, both from new accounts you never followed and from tried-and-true opposition faggots you never followed, but bots are amplifying the popularity of these posts, and they're popping up everywhere.
1/ The occupied Donetsk region is being isolated from Russia through drone-dropped remote mining, according to reports from the area. The forced closure of border checkpoints highlights the region's vulnerability to Ukraine's anti-logistics campaign. ⬇️
2/ Despite occupied regions of Ukraine having been formally annexed, Russia still maintains full border controls with its 'new territories'. This is generally believed to be to meant prevent the smuggling of weapons and drugs, and to stop military deserters returning to Russia.
3/ However, the retention of border controls has also created chokepoints which Ukraine can block. Recent reports have indicated that air-dropped mines are being deployed around the checkpoints from Ukrainian drones, many kilometres from the front line.
1/ Ukraine's attacks against bridges, ferries, and logistics in Crimea have virtually cut off the peninsula. Russian warbloggers are reacting with anger and dismay. "Crimea has become an island," one admits. "Are we tolerating it?", demands another. ⬇️
2/ 'Intelligence Diary' sums up the situation following a Ukrainian attack using hundreds of UAVs, with Russia claiming to have shot down 239 but many more getting through:
"Crimea has become an island.
No ferry
No gasoline
No Chongar Bridge
No buses
No trains"
3/ He reports gloomily that "Crimea is in a complete fuel lockdown and there's a gasoline panic.
People are close to hysteria. The peninsula is descending into chaos."
He notes that Ukraine's data-enabled attack planning is fundamentally changing the situation for Russia: