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 is constructing shelters for its heavy bomber aircraft to protect them from Ukrainian drone strikes, such as the famous 'Operation Spider's Web'. However, Russian warbloggers say it's too little, too late. ⬇️
2/ The shelters are being constructed at the Engels air base near Saratov, which has previously been attacked by fixed-wing Ukrainian UAVs. It houses the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, which includes a single squadron of Tu-160s and another of Tu-95s.
3/ At least 17 shelters are being built to accommodate the strategic bombers housed at the base. Reportedly, the work began in April 2025, before the June 2025 'Spider's Web' attacks.
1/ Wounded Russian soldiers are having to wait for anything from 48 hours to a remarkable 90 days for evacuation from the battlefields of Ukraine. Russian medical specialists say that there is a widespread lack of field medical expertise, likely dooming many of the wounded. ⬇️
2/ The Bulletin of the Russian Military Medical Academy has published a new report "On the Impact of the Nature of Combat Operations on the Structure of Medical Losses and the Organization of Surgical Care for the Wounded." However, commentators say it doesn't reflect reality.
3/ The data in the report is old, covering 2022-2024, and for some reason was not published until now. As the specialist military-medical warblog '5mg. KGV.' notes, it's not representative of the current situation on the battlefield. The blog's author writes:
1/ Russian warblogger Nikita Tretyakov is "thinking the unthinkable" about the war in Ukraine and its disastrous consequences. He lists a long series of catastrophes that he says have befallen Russia since February 2022, and the Russian weaknesses that they have exposed. ⬇️
2/ Tretyakov quotes Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov's recent comments on the failed negotiations with Donald Trump in Anchorage on 15 August 2025, in which Lavrov implicitly accused Trump of betraying Putin's trust:
3/ “I don’t even want to suspect that Alaska, like the European actions, was conceived to buy time for the Kyiv regime to be armed; I don’t even want to think about it, but in reality, that's how it turned out.”
1/ Russia's blocking of Telegram has had a disastrous impact on the reach and income of many Russians. This includes Russia's professional warbloggers, who have suffered a drastic drop in income that threatens to make their work financially unviable. ⬇️
2/ The 'Novorossiya militia reports' Telegram channel has been active online for 12 years. Its operators say it now faces a battle for its survival following the block on Telegram and an apparent algorithmic downranking on VKontakte (VK).
3/ An appeal to its readers for funds highlights how some are now struggling to make ends meet, and also provides an insight into the workings of professional warblogging outfits:
1/ Russian warbloggers have frequently called for the destruction of the bridges over the Dnipro to cripple Ukraine's ability to move troops and supplies. However, a recent Russian strike highlights why this hasn't happened: they keep missing. ⬇️
2/ 'Shakespeare' credulously repeats official Russian propaganda lines about the success of the strikes:
"And on the eve [of 20 June 2026], strikes were quietly and somewhat modestly carried out against enemy bridges: 12 gliding bombs "shut down" the logistics of Zaporizhzhia."
3/ "The strikes were carried out by the Russian Armed Forces using 500 kg gliding bombs.
1/ Ukraine is using quadcopter drones carried by uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) to hunt down and destroy Russian anti-drone teams in occupied Crimea, according to a Russian source. ⬇️
2/ Ukrainian drone carrier USVs have been observed in use in the Black Sea in recent months. The Russian warblogger 'Veterans' Notes' describes how they are being used to support Ukraine's middle-strike campaign, by suppressing air defences in the occupied regions:
3/ "Regarding mobile task forces (MOGs) on the peninsula, the enemy has begun actively hunting them. There have already been numerous cases of MOG crews coming under fire from Ukrainian drones and suffering losses. These attacks were carried out on the coast using FPV drones.