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/ A Russian army officer who briefed Vladimir Putin yesterday on the evils of Telegram has been exposed as being a premium Telegram user who doesn't even have an account on the state-approved messenger MAX. Russian warbloggers have erupted in outrage. ⬇️
2/ During the briefing, Lt Col Irina Godunova, a Russian army communications specialist, told Putin that Telegram was "considered a hostile means of communication" and that work was ongoing to "refine MAX" so that "everything will work well on the front line".
3/ Telegram plays a crucial part in frontline Russian military communications, as the thread below highlights. Russian warbloggers, many of them soldiers serving in Ukraine, have vociferously protested the Russian government's apparent plan to block it.
1/ Russian bloggers are waking up to the fact that they live in an oppressive dictatorship with declining living standards. 14 years after Vladimir Putin was reelected as "a strong leader for a great country," commentators are asking: what has Putin ever done for us? ⬇️
2/ Lara Rzhondovskaya, the editor of Novoe Media who writes on Telegram as 'Dear Persimmon', has a plaintive series of complaints six months ahead of Russia's forthcoming presidential elections:
3/ "It's time to start understanding why, and this time, as a citizen, I want to support the government's chosen course and the government itself with my vote.
1/ Did Ukraine recreate a January 2024 attack which sank a Russian corvette in the Black Sea with the sinking of the Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz on 3 March 2026? A Russian source says that the tanker was sunk off Libya by four UAVs and two USVs attacking as a swarm. ⬇️
2/ 'Fighterbomber', which proclaimes itself to be the "chronicles of a retired fighter-bomber [pilot]", often posts information from apparent insider sources within the Russian Air Force, such as news of Russian military aircraft shootdowns and crashes.
3/ The channel reports: "According to the rumour mill, which in turn dreamed it up, four UAVs and two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) arrived at the gas carrier. They struck at the same location, at a coordinated time."
1/ Iran and Russia have a partnership treaty, but that doesn't mean Russia should help China in any way, says a Russian commentator. He argues that Iran is merely a "Chinese gas station" and a "situational partner", and Russian support should be limited to "likes and reposts". ⬇️
2/ Opinion on the US/Israel/Iran war among Russian commentators and warbloggers has been mixed in recent days, with some arguing for Russia to support Iran, some saying it should condemn Iran for 'going crazy', and others saying Russia should stay out of it.
3/ Russian journalist and politician Andrei Medvedev recently caused controversy when he argued that Iran was only an opportunistic ally of Russia, and has a long-term history of contributing to Russian losses and defeats such as in Afghanistan.
1/ Russian forces are being driven back in parts of Ukraine, following the Starlink shutdown and degradation of Telegram. This has prompted one Russian warblogger who is fighting in Ukraine to post a blistering denunciation of the leadership in Moscow. ⬇️
2/ One of the administrators of the 'Management Speaks' Telegram channel, a serving Russian soldier fighting on the front line in Ukraine, wants everyone to know that he has had enough:
3/ "Admin 'Svatovsky' doesn't even know where to begin, and whether anyone will care about our battles in villages and forests while the Israelis are fighting the Iranians.If our guys didn't pretend to be the good guys and negotiate new rules every day,…
1/ Images showing that America's new LUCAS kamikaze drone is equipped with an integrated Starshield terminal have prompted a call from a prominent Russian warblogger for Russia to find "a means to destroy thousands of Starlink satellites now." ⬇️
2/ Photos released by US Central Command show Starshield-equipped Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones being launched against Iran. The disclosure has caused widespread alarm among Russian military commentators.
3/ Starshield is a military counterpart to the civilian Starlink network, with a separate infrastructure and network. In contrast to the thousands of civilian Starlink satellites, there are far fewer Starshield satellites in orbit: reportedly at least 183, as of April 2025.