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/ Outgoing US DNI Tulsi Gabbard's release of "evidence of US biolabs" around the world, with Ukraine singled out in her statement, is being widely cited by Russian commentators as proof of Russia's propaganda conspiracy theories on the topic. ⬇️
2/ Many Russian warbloggers and commentators have reported the release. A number have taken the opportunity to highlight how, in their view, Gabbard has vindicated Russia's claims about "Ukrainian biolabs" which were supposedly being used to develop biological weapons.
3/ Among them is Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, whose department has been a key player in promoting those claims. She applauds Gabbard's actions:
1/ Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil refineries are reportedly pushing them into a crisis, with a loss of control over fuel supplies and a lack of effective anti-drone defences. Russian oil giant Rosneft is reportedly pushing for nationalisation. ⬇️
2/ Russia's oil refinery ownership is dominated by a handful of large vertically integrated companies. State-controlled Rosneft and Gazprom Neft control the largest and most modern refineries, along with a number of private companies including Lukoil, Surgutneftegas, and Tatneft.
3/ All of these companies' refineries have come under repeated and highly costly attacks from Ukrainian drones, which have caused increasing shortages of fuel across western Russia. There is said to be a critical lack of coordinated efforts to defend the refineries.
1/ Many of the Russian soldiers seen daily being blown up by Ukrainian drones are there not because they're trained infantry, but are specialists or even officers who are being sent to their deaths as a punishment. A Russian colonel says he's never seen anything like it. ⬇️
2/ An 'old recruit' who has survived two years' service in the Russian army writes to warblogger and journalist Maxim Kalashnikov to relay his experience of how the army is routinely sending men to die in assaults for displeasing their superiors, regardless of their expertise:
3/ "About a month ago, I managed to meet with an officer from our artillery battalion. We started serving in it at the same time. I was dropped from the unit to the hospital earlier. He displeased his superiors and ended up in an assault unit. He wasn't alone, though.
1/ The Russian government claims that Ukraine's drone attacks against Russia are for political rather than military aims, given the supposed impossibility of a Ukrainian victory. A Russian warblogger warns that this is a dangerous illusion resulting from distorted information. ⬇️
2/ Svyatoslav Golikov, author of the 'Philologist in Ambush' Telegram channel, writes:
3/ "The official domestic information space is circulating the idea that enemy air strikes on critical infrastructure, primarily fuel and energy facilities and logistics,…
1/ Russian warbloggers are baffled and angry at the Kalashikov Group's announcement of a single-shot shotgun, chambered in a lower-powered calibre, for shooting down drones. One comments that "You can probably only shoot yourself with it". ⬇️
2/ In a Telegram post on 8 June, the Kalashnikov Group announced a new gun produced by specialists at the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering (JSC TsNIITochMash, part of the Rostec State Corporation under the management of the Kalashnikov Group):
3/ "This compact, single-shot shotgun chambered for 12x70 mm cartridges is designed to defeat small, low-flying UAVs. The weapon's main advantage is its compact size and light weight—weighing only 1.8 kg."
1/ Why is Russia so vulnerable to Ukraine's mid-range drone attacks? Russian drone developer Alexey Chadayev says that it's due to an ongoing and unresolved series of Russian failures in developing new interceptor drones and anti-drone capabilities. ⬇️
The balance of the war has shifted significantly in the enemy's favour, not because of any problems on our part at the front—the same positional dragging continues there, essentially."
3/ "Problems have arisen in the rear—due to the exponential increase in the number and capabilities of deep strikes and middle strikes, as well as the focused pressure on our logistics, especially fuel and energy infrastructure.