1/ As Ukrainian forces advance in the Kursk region, law and order in frontline Russian-held areas is reported to have collapsed completely. "Rampant looting" is said have broken out – being done by the Russians themselves – while local residents say they feel abandoned. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "in the border areas of the Kursk region, where fighting has been going on all week, there are no police, no firefighters, no doctors, no representatives of the administration.
3/ "According to official information, more than 76,000 people left the settlements (most of them left on their own, since there was no organized evacuation, despite the statements of the authorities), but there are still people there, mostly elderly."
4/ The channel says that "the desertion of villages and towns has become a catalyst for rampant looting". The disorder is being carried out by the Russians themselves, though it isn't clear if opportunistic civilians or indisciplined soldiers are responsible.
5/ A local resident says: "They are robbing stores, there is a collapse in Korenevo, the “Magnit” [supermarket, pictured below] was simply destroyed. There is no water, no gas, no electricity.
6/ "There was no organized evacuation, and if there was, then why didn’t we hear anything about it in Lobanovka [an outlying area of Korenevo]?"
According to VChK-OGPU, "a similar situation exists in other border municipalities."
7/ It reports that "Kursk residents are sure that representatives of the [regional] administration, having abandoned people to their fate, themselves provoked the collapse in the border areas.
8/ "Currently, it is impossible to get through to the administration of the Korenevsky district of the Kursk region. People are forced to self-organise in order to protect themselves and their property and essentially perform the functions of state and law enforcement agencies."
Addendum: The Ukrainians have now published a video which shows soldiers, possibly from the Rosgvardia, looting an abandoned Russian house in the Kursk region. New thread here:
1/ Three years ago, in September 2022, Russia began mobilising 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine. Most are now dead or disabled, but two survivors have been discussing their experiences of mobilisation, enduring Ukrainian attacks, surviving "meat waves," and murdering POWs. ⬇️
2/ The author of the 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel is a serving frontline Russian soldier and one of the original September 2022 'mobiks'. He says that he is the only one of his cohort to have lasted this long without being killed or taken out of the war through disablement.
3/ He has been interviewing another surviving September 2022 mobik, a man with the callsign 'Ukol' who is serving as a medical instructor in what he calls the 'Separate Rifle Death Brigade', which he says is "a complete asshole. A bloody asshole."
1/ A prominent Russian political scientist has proposed sending Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine to Siberia, as a way of securing a new Asian destiny for Russia. This has received a frosty response from Russian warbloggers. ⬇️
2/ The proposal was made by Sergey Karaganov, the scientific director of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy.
3/ In an article titled "Logistics for Greater Eurasia", Karaganov argues that Russia should turn its back on an ungrateful Europe and focus instead on an Asian destiny.
1/ Russia's mass drone incursion in Poland is only the latest episode in a long-running series of incursions in nine other European countries, as far away as Croatia, since 2022. There have been at least 56 instances of Russian drones and missiles landing outside Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ The Russian independent news outlet Verstka reports that Russian drone and missile debris was found in countries other than Ukraine seven times in 2022, 16 times in 2023, 17 times in 2024 and 16 times in 2025 prior to 10 September.
3/ Romania has been the worst affected, with 20 such incidents since 2022 – one in 2022, 7 in 2023 and 2024, and 5 in 2025. This is closely correlated with Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube river, which marks the Ukraine/Romania border.
1/ The assassination of Charlie Kirk has prompted some to make comparisons with the death in 1934 of Sergei Kirov – a pivotal event in Soviet history. Who was Kirov, and what lessons can be drawn from his demise? ⬇️
2/ Kirov was a veteran revolutionary – an 'Old Bolshevik' – who, at the time of his death, was the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad and a member of the Politburo. He was assassinated on 1 December 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev, an expelled party member with a grudge.
3/ There is still a lot of uncertainty around Kirov's death. While Nikolaev was certainly the assassin, later Soviet politicians and historians suggested that Stalin might have had a hand in it. Kirov was a popular Party figure with his own power base, independent of Stalin.
1/ Russia is lagging far behind Ukraine in the production and use of drones, according to a commander of the Chechen Akhmat unit. He provides a lengthy critique of Russian efforts and an explanation of how Ukrainian drone tactics are impacting Russia's attempts to advance. ⬇️
2/ The man, who uses the callsign 'Hades', says that it's a huge mistake to underestimate Ukraine, and cites his experiences of the faltering Russian campaign in the Sumy region on the border of north-eastern Ukraine.
3/ "Here the enemy began to use the same tactics of using UAVs. Yes, we have an advantage in missiles, and they also have an advantage in missiles. But while we hit precisely somewhere, they rain down anywhere they want.
1/ Russia is fighting a PR campaign rather than a war, a Russian warblogger complains. He says that Russia commanders are falsifying localised victories and painting an unduly rosy picture of success, while Ukrainian drones continue to dominate the battlefield. ⬇️
2/ Anatoly Radov (blogging as 'motopatriot78') writes:
"Unfortunately, predictably, everything has long since descended into a situation where the main thing is not to win, but to declare victory.
3/ "It doesn't matter what the situation is really like on the front line, the main thing is that everything is presented as a quick and easy victory.