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/ It's very hard to win a war with a strategy that is built on bullshit. This was one of the key lessons of World War II, thanks to the approach taken by Adolf Hitler, who launched the war in Europe. Here are some of the lessons from Hitler's Great European Bullshit War. ⬇️
2/ Harry Frankfurt's famous essay "On Bullshit" draws a crucial distinction that is useful to consider here. A liar knows the truth and deliberately inverts it. A bullshitter is entirely indifferent to truth – what matters is the effect produced and the audience managed.
3/ It mustn't be forgotten that Hitler's rise to power was based on bullshit. His Dolchstoßlegende — the stab-in-the-back myth, blaming Germany's WWI defeat on Jews and socialists rather than military failure – was entirely invented, an early example of the Big Lie technique.
1/ Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland in January, with military support from France, Germany, and Nordic nations. Elite troops and F-35 jets with live ammunition were sent, and runways were to be blown up to prevent an invasion. ⬇️
2/ The Danish public broadcaster DR reports that officials in Denmark, France and Germany say that Donald Trump's threats to seize Greenland were taken so seriously that wide-ranging preparations were made to forcibly resist a US invasion of the Danish island.
3/ The Danish and French governments worked together to create a northern European coalition to defend Greenland from the United States. Under the cover of a pre-planned defence exercise, Greenland's defences were bolstered to raise the costs of any US invasion attempt.
1/ Pro-government Russians shouldn't be excessively disappointed by the Putin regime's repressive behaviour in recent months, says drone manufacturer Alexey Chadayev. He argues that that's how it's always been in Russia and nobody should expect any different. ⬇️
2/ Chadayev is the Director General of Russia's Ushkuynik Research and Production Centre (NPC Ushkuynik). He comments on recent complaints by previously pro-government commentators about the blocking of Telegram and the Internet shutdowns in Moscow and St Petersburg:
3/ "On the topic of 'disillusioned patriots' (I'm not talking about weathervane lawyers, in case it's unclear, but about the threat of 'loss of motivation' among government supporters, a topic that has been much discussed by various commentators in recent days).
1/ While the world's eyes are elsewhere, the long-running water crisis in Donetsk is continuing. An account from Russian warblogger Dmitry Steshin highlights how residents of what had been one of Ukraine's most developed cities are living now. ⬇️
2/ Since 2022, much of the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been experiencing a severe water shortage. Cities have faced water rationing, while outlying towns and villages have often had no water at all.
3/ The root cause of this is a combination of war damage to the canal that provided pre-war Donetsk with water, the source of which is in Ukrainian-held territory near Kramatorsk, and decrepit infrastructure which has gone unmaintained due to corruption.
1/ Powerful interests in Russia are milking the war in Ukraine for profit and power, complains a Russian drone developer and blogger. He argues that the interests are indifferent to the loss of Russian lives and are ripping off the state defence procurement system. ⬇️
2/ 'UAV Developer' writes on Telegram: "You see, they couldn't care less about our victory."
3/ "They—a collective group of people in power, one of the towers [factions]—understand that the name of the Lord Special Military Operation can still be used to cover up any nonsense, and to call opponents foreign agents and enemies of the people.
1/ Russia is suffering huge casualties in the battle for Kostiantynivka, says a Russian soldier who is fighting there. He says that 75% of his unit of poorly-trained middle-aged men was killed in a single assault, with dogs eating the skeletonised bodies of the dead nearby. ⬇️
2/ A man named Tamerlan – likely from the North Caucasus, judging by the name – has recorded a video describing his experiences. He says:
"Today, 27 men went into the assault, and only six survived ... "
3/ "They're just fucking new guys, they've just arrived, they haven't even been serving for a month, damn it. We were herding them in there... It was a complete mess."