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/ After spending years demanding a full mobilisation, Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin has come to the realisation that it would now be pointless: Ukraine's swarms of drones are capable of destroying "any number of infantry", and Russia doesn't even have enough weapons to arm them. ⬇️
2/ A reader of his Telegram channel asks:
"Question: there's increasing talk of possible mobilisation—do you think the government will take such a step? And is mobilisation necessary under the current circumstances?"
To which Girkin replies:
3/ "Mobilisation was needed in the spring of 2022, the spring of 2023, the spring of 2024, and perhaps even the spring of 2025. Now, mobilisation is catastrophically late. Currently, mobilisation, as perceived by the majority of the population, will yield no results.
1/ Russian drone developers are complaining that because of bureaucratic restrictions, they are having to use firecrackers as the warheads on interceptor drones, or rely solely on kinetic methods instead of explosive warheads. ⬇️
2/ The Russian warblogger 'UAV Developer' shows a photo of two firecrackers and asks:
"Do you know what this is?
It's the warhead of an interceptor drone."
3/ "While those Ukrainian drones are hitting a house in Yekaterinburg, smashing a landing craft in Crimea with shrapnel, and killing a dozen civilians along the way, the developers of interceptor drones are trying to somehow circumvent the restrictions of the mad printer…
1/ Ukrainian citizens are reportedly selling 'whitelisted' Starlink terminals to Russia, to enable the Russian army to get around the blocking of unauthorised Starlink terminals. The trade highlights how corruption in Ukraine is directly aiding Russia's war effort. ⬇️
2/ Russian forces in Ukraine used Starlink on a large scale for both battlefield communications and, increasingly, drone guidance. Since early February 2026, however, only whitelisted terminals – which can only be acquired with Ukrainian government permission – can be used.
3/ However, some in Ukraine appear to be helping Russia to circumvent these restrictions. So-called 'White Starlink' offers are proliferating on Telegram channels, offering whitelisted "Starlink for military and civilians in the new territories of the Russian Federation".
1/ Starving Russian soldiers in Ukraine have been eating their comrades and Ukrainians, according to intercepted Russian communications. Audio and photographic evidence indicates that several incidents of cannibalism likely occured in 2025. ⬇️
2/ The UK's Sunday Times newspaper has published evidence of what Ukrainian intelligence sources say were at least five instances where Russian soldiers were said by their fellow soldiers and commanders to have engaged in cannibalism.
3/ The evidence reportedly came to light from intercepted messages on Telegram, which has universally been used by the Russians for battlefield communications until it was recently blocked by the Russian government.
1/ Russia's attempts at import substitution have "completely failed" and the corrupt state procurement system is effectively killing off domestic factories, warns a Russian factory head. He says the system makes some rich, but will lead to a domestic economic collapse. ⬇️
2/ Kubanzheldormash JSC is a large engineering company in Southern Russia. It is one of the few domestic manufacturers of mechanised track tools for railway construction and maintenance, as well as agricultural machinery and hydraulic equipment.
3/ The company marks its 93rd anniversary this August, but it may be its last, warns company head Vyacheslav Yakovlev in a YouTube video.
1/ The Russian Ministry of Defence has announced that it will not allow drone operators to be sent to assault units without their consent, in a bid to prevent them being sent to their deaths as a punishment. However, a Russian warblogger warns this will be hard to enforce. ⬇️
2/ 'Rybar' reports:
"On the front lines, some commanders sometimes mismanaged the personnel entrusted to them, sending drone operators, engineers, and medics to assault units for the slightest infraction."
3/ "The impact this has had on the recruitment of volunteers for the emerging unmanned systems forces is self-evident.