1/ A carload of Russian conscripts who were guarding the Russia-Ukraine border is reported to have been hit by a missile, killing four people and injuring six more. The incident highlights the dangers faced by Russia's barely trained and poorly armed conscripts on the border. ⬇️
2/ Russian media outlets report that the incident happened near Borisovka in the Belgorod region on 1 June. According to one of the survivors, the car was hit – likely by an anti-tank missile - as it pulled out of a forest belt onto a road. The men were going to a bathhouse.
3/ The exact location isn't reported, but from the description, the incident is likely to have taken place along the Lozova river around Kazach'e-Rudchenskoe or Lozovaya Rudka, where a forest belt with a parallel road behind it on the Russian side separates Russia from Ukraine.
4/ Three are said to have been killed – an ensign from the 43rd separate railway brigade and two conscripts from the 228th regiment – and the driver of the vehicle is said to have died later in hospital. The dead conscripts were reportedly from Dagestan and Yekaterinburg.
5/ One of the surviving conscripts and his mother says they had been occupying positions only 800 metres from the Ukrainian border for about a month. They were digging trenches and dugouts but had come under regular shelling, which has demoralised the men.
6/ The forest belt was considered to be 'no man's land'. According to the conscript, "the last shelling happened two days ago. The guys are lost because of the constant news of injuries and so on."
7/ "I am completely perplexed: how can you continue to stay here when the guys you had breakfast with die within the hour? I have not heard anything sensible from the commander personally, [he] did not try to calm down, nothing was said about our withdrawal from here."
8/ "As far as I know in my brigade, from where I came here, everyone is already aware of [the shelling], up to the battalion commander."
9/ Russia is relying heavily on conscripts to defend its border (see thread below). At least nine are reported to have been killed so far, including those in this latest incident.
1/ A single district in the Novosibirsk region is reported to have sent nearly 4 percent of its entire population to the Ukraine war. Its former head is said to have mobilised anyone "who crossed her path". Angry residents smeared her car with faeces in protest. ⬇️
2/ The Suzun district of the Siberian region of Novosibirsk has a population of around 31,000 people. According to local residents, around 1,200 people – 3.9 percent of the entire population (probably amounting to around 7.5–8 percent of the male population) – were mobilised.
3/ The entire Novosibirsk region, with a population of 2.8 million people, is reported to have mobilised around 11,500 people. Those mobilised from this one small district therefore equal around 10 percent of those mobilised from the entire region.
1/ The Russian authorities reportedly believe that Tuesday's drone attack on Moscow was launched from within Russia. An operation to find vehicles carrying drones is said to have been launched across a wide area of western Russia.
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "Moscow is confident that the drones that attacked the capital and several other regions were launched from Russian territory. As a result, from today, cars will be searched at checkpoints for UAVs."
3/ The Russian Ministry of Defence is said to have launched Operation Anaconda to seach for 'UAV carriers' on a permanent basis. VChK-OGPU reports that "teams of operatives, district police officers and traffic police officers are now being set up to be deployed at key posts."
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.
1/ The Latin letters Z and V are now regarded by Russia's authorities as patriotic symbols of its war in Ukraine. Recent court cases have shown that using them in disapproved ways will be punished. ⬇️
2/ In the latest such case, a woman from Nizhny Novgorod is reported to have been fined 30 thousand rubles ($371) for "discrediting the RF Armed Forces" for putting a sticker reading "беZумие" ("madness") on her car.
3/ The letters Z and V were originally used by the Russian army as recognition symbols on its vehicles in the invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian Ministry of Defence has retrospectively turned them into shorthand for patriotic slogans.
1/ Russia's missile defence system is supposed to be able to detect a football-sized object from 8,000 km away. However, corruption is said to have left it "full of holes" and the head of Russia's Space Forces may now face prosecution, as a scandal at the Russian MOD deepens. ⬇️
2/ I've previously highlighted the scandal, which has reportedly spawned a separate investigation into corruption in Russia's National Defence Control Centre (NDCC) that has led to the arrest of Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko.
3/ Corruption is also reported to be at the heart of the scandal affecting Russia's giant Voronezh radars. Contractors are said to have widely used cheap and unsuitable foreign-made components. Tests have reportedly found this has seriously affected the radars' performance.
1/ Further to @BBCSteveR's excellent review of how the Russian press is responding to yesterday's mass drone attack in Moscow (see below), the 'playbook' issued to the Russian media on how to report on the attack appears to have been leaked. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian news outlet Meduza reports that "the pro-government media have been told how to cover the drone attack on Moscow: to highlight the 'successful air defence work' and emphasise that the goals of the 'provocation' have not been achieved."
3/ "The media 'are asked to use the following approaches':
✹ to draw attention to 'successful air defence work';