1/ Russian forces in southern Ukraine appear to be experiencing an increasingly desperate shortage of water. Water rations for all personnel – from soldiers in the trenches to fighter pilots – are now limited to only 1 l (36 oz) per day, as little as 8% of what they need. ⬇️
2/ The Fighterbomber Telegram channel last week posted an appeal to Russian companies to supply Russian Air Force regiments with bottled water. It reports that 3,300 litres have now been donated to one airfield – enough to last a month.
3/ However, seven more regiments still need a total of 23 tonnes of water (23,000 litres / 6,000 US gallons). The huge shortfall almost certainly indicates a major breakdown in Russian logistics across the region, exacerbated by drought and the destruction of the Kahkovka Dam.
4/ The channel notes: "The standard of one litre of bottled water a day is not only for pilots. It's the same for the whole army, but now they've added pilots to it.
It's the same for those in the trenches."
5/ This quantity is far below what is needed. According to this chart (thanks @TrentTelenko), at current temperatures of 30-35°C men are likely to need between 7-13 litres per day if they are carrying out moderate to hard work. They are getting between 8-15% of this amount.
6/ Not surprisingly, Russian soldiers on the front line are taking increasingly desperate measures to obtain water, such as creating crude filters to try to strain out contaminants, or simply drinking untreated water directly from puddles.
7/ Given that ground water in the vicinity of trenches is likely to be contaminated with human feces, spilled fuel and decaying corpses, it's probable that Russian troops are experiencing significant rates of water-borne diseases.
8/ While this is likely to affect combat effectiveness through dehydration and disease, it's possible that Russian casualties are so high - reportedly currently 1,200 per day – that they are dying so quickly that many do not have time to get ill.
1/ The near-simultaneous shutdown of Starlink and Telegram are having a massive impact on Russian forces in Ukraine, according to Russian warbloggers. They say that recent Ukrainian advances are a direct consequence of the problems that are being caused. ⬇️
2/ 'Two Majors' writes:
"[W]e can say that it was precisely the combined communication problems that have led to the localized Ukrainian Armed Forces offensives in the south of Kupyansk and in the Zaporizhzhia direction in recent days.
3/ "We didn't make this up; veterans from various parts of the front told us so.
Why are we so angry? Our people are dying there. Our comrades. And if our grumbling can make even a small difference, then it won't have been for nothing that we've all gathered here."
1/ Russia may be preparing to announce a mass mobilisation, a bad peace deal with the US, or confiscate people's savings to fund the war effort, according to Russian warbloggers. They suspect that the government wants to ban Telegram to block public dissent over such moves. ⬇️
2/ Russian officials have hinted strongly that Telegram, which is currently being slowed down and partly blocked by the government, faces a total ban by 1 April 2026. 'Alex Parker Returns' writes (in a since-deleted post) that the government faces a dilemma:
3/ "Either capitulate in accordance with the renewed spirit of Anchorage—freezing the line of contact, surrendering the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and other whimsical proposals that our esteemed partners will come up with along the way, …
1/ An ongoing epidemic of murder and extortion in the Russian army has reached such a level that Russian warbloggers say the army has become a "gangster supermarket". "Extortion under the threat of death has become an entire shadow industry", says one Russian blogger. ⬇️
2/ Fresh reports of men being "zeroed out" by their commanders are published almost daily. Recently leaked data from the Russian human rights commissioner records over 6,000 complaints in 6 months from soldiers and their relatives about abuses in the army.
3/ Corrupt Russian commanders routinely extort their men with the threat of having them murdered, or sending them into unsurvivable assaults. "Life support" bribes – paid either by the men or their relatives to keep them out of assaults – are commonplace.
1/ Why are Russian soldiers so ill-equipped that they are forced to rely on combat donkeys? Russian warbloggers draw a direct connection to cases of egregious military corruption, such as the recent conviction of Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko for stealing 592 million rubles. ⬇️
2/ Kovalenko's case – for which he was fined just 500,000 rubles ($6,519) and spared jail – has attracted outrage from many Russian commentators. As they point out, it is merely one of many similar cases over the past three decades.
1/ Ukraine's rapid advances in recent days have revealed that many Russian claims of capturing settlements along the length of the front were false or tenous. Russian warbloggers complain that this has exposed more lies by their side's commanders. 📷
2/ Rybar provides a gloomy assessment of Ukraine's progress:
"The situation on the western flank of the Zaporizhzhia front has deteriorated sharply over the past 24 hours."
3/ "The enemy is attempting to cut off the penetration toward Zaporizhzhia along the shore of the former Kakhovka Reservoir. Ukrainian forces have launched an offensive along a sector approximately 20 kilometers wide.
1/ A retired Russian rear admiral has been convicted of stealing over half a billion rubles allocated to repairing anti-aircraft missile systems. He was fined 500,000 rubles and immediately released from custody. ⬇️
2/ Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko was found guilty yesterday in the Moscow Region Garrison Court of organising a large-scale embezzlement of Russian Ministry of Defence funds allocated to four contracts for the repair of anti-aircraft missile systems between 2013 and 2017.
3/ The fraud involved purchasing faulty components from Ukraine in 2012 – before the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbas – for only 40 million rubles ($521,000) and passing them off as refurbished ones. A total of 592 million rubles ($7.7 m) was reportedly stolen.