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/ "Colossal embezzlement" in Russia's defence industries has led to them failing to modernise Russian military equipment to meet modern demands. It has forced Russian troops in the field to make crude improvisations like 'turtle tanks', according to a Russian commentary. ⬇️
2/ The 'Segodyna. ru' Telegram channel highlights the inability or unwillingness of many Russian military equipment makers to develop new or improved versions of equipment. It attributes this to manufacturers being are content to milk the state rather than make improvements.
3/ The channel highlights problems with artillery and armoured vehicles in particular. On artillery, it notes "problems with the range and accuracy of artillery. The situation has not changed over the years of combat operations." Western-made artillery is superior on both counts.
1/ The US Office of Management and Budget is circulating questionnaires to democracy-promoting organisations in eastern Europe, asking them if they are promoting DEI or climate science, opposing abortion, "combating Christian persecution", or making money for the USA. ⬇️
2/ A six-page memorandum with the questionnaire has been leaked to the independent Russian media outlet Agency. News. It appears to have been sent to all agencies that fund foreign assistance as part of a global review. Further funding depends on how the questions are answered.
3/ Four Eastern European organisations which have received currently frozen funding from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor say they have received the questionnaire.
1/ In two possible indications that the Russians expect fighting in Ukraine to end soon, the Russian army has reportedly abruptly stopped recruiting convicts, and officers are said to be flocking to safe areas of Donetsk and Luhansk so that they can gain war veteran benefits. ⬇️
2/ According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, "sources report that in a number of penal colonies and pretrial detention centers the recruitment of prisoners for the war was suspended. It is possible that this was done everywhere."
3/ "In some regions even those convicts who had been approved for sending to the so-called Special Military Operation zone by all authorities were "turned back".
1/ The acute exhaustion and demoralisation of the Russians fighting in eastern Ukraine comes across in a vivid description of conditions on the ground, as told by the Telegram blog of a Russian soldier titled, revealingly, 'Groundhog Day'. ⬇️
2/ 3 March 2025
"I have not been able to concentrate, sit down and write a note lately. Another hit cuts off the power, so I sit down to try to convey all the feelings of the last few days.
3/ "It is difficult to say that this is even real. The whole essence of what is happening to us, in general and to me in particular, is expressed easily and simply - a nightmare. No, there is no fear as such.
1/ Russian soldiers are being stuck with massive fines, to be paid from their own pockets, for driving military vehicles on toll roads. They complain that the Russian army is making them pay for so much themselves that they can't make any profit from fighting in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ A Russian army driver writes to the 'Two Majors' Telegram channel:
"I am a mobilised driver, I drive a Ural [truck]."
3/ "In Moscow there is a road called Bagration Avenue, I drove along it, with black [military] licence plates, I carried out orders, I chose this road because I wanted to reduce travel time.
1/ Ukrainian drones are dominating the skies above exhausted Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region, according to a prominent Russian warblogger. As a result, Russia's progress has virtually halted in the region, even as it advances in Kursk. ⬇️
2/ 'Military Informant' highlights the likely culmination of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine. He contrasts the situation in the Donbas and Kursk, and warns that an orderly Ukrainian withdrawal in the latter will cause more difficulties in the former:
3/ "Against the background of significant advancement in the Kursk region, a serious slowdown in the offensive tempo of the Russian Armed Forces in Donbas has been observed for a month now.