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:
69 years ago today, Hungary celebrated its newfound freedoms – free speech, free assembly, freedom from oppression, and for thousands of people, their physical freedom from Communist jails. But in Moscow, leaders planned to take it all away.
2/ Over 12,000 prisoners are released by the new government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy on the ninth day of the revolution. They include Hungary's most famous political prisoner, Cardinal József Mindszenty, who returns at once to the Archibishop's Palace in Buda.
3/ Further consolidation of the Hungarian state security forces is begun under the auspices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Committee, which aims to bring together the armed forces, police, Border Guard and the new National Guard comprised of ex-insurgents.
1/ The fatal capsizing of a Russian floating crane in Sevastopol has highlighted the inability of the Black Sea Fleet's principal shipyard to build the cranes needed for the construction of new naval vessels, as a critical Russian commentary notes. ⬇️
2/ The PK-400 "Sevastopol" floating crane capsized at the Sevastopol Marine Shipyard in Sevastopol's South Bay on 28 October 2025. The crane has been under construction since 2017, was launched in October 2019, and its 400-ton lifting boom was installed in August 2021.
3/ As 'Military Informant' highlights, this is not the shipyard's first failed crane-building project:
"This situation is the final demonstration of Sevmorzavod's true ability to build anything worthwhile."
69 years ago, the Hungarian Revolution reached a crucial point. With revolutionaries now in control of the country, jubilant crowds hailed a new era of freedom for Hungary. But how far would the Soviet Union let the Hungarians go?
2/ On 30 October 1956, the eighth day of the revolution, violence breaks out again in Budapest as a unit of the newly formed National Guard attempts to seize the headquarters of the Hungarian Communist Party in Republic Square.
3/ The building is occupied by ÁVH secret policemen, despite the abolition of the ÁVH by the new government on the day before. Shooting breaks out, leading to casualties on both sides. Revolutionary insurgents lay siege to the building.
1/ The Russian government is to implement what it calls a 'dronification' rating for Russia's regions, in which they will be assessed for their success in producing UAVs. However, as Russian warblogger 'Military Informant' warns, it's ripe for cheating and perverse incentives. ⬇️
2/ "The "dronification" rating of regions developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (what a term—it makes you want to spit and wash your mouth out) promises, as usual, unprecedented benefits and prosperity for Russia. In the future.
3/ "You can read about it on every fence or hear about it on every radio. But what is likely to happen in reality—in the near future?
1/ Poor-quality Chinese-made lithium batteries for drones are exploding in frontline dugouts, endangering their occupants, according to a Russian warblogger. He highlights Russia's failure to find viable alternatives to Chinese components of dubious quality. ⬇️
2/ Platon Mamatov writes:
"I won't delve into the depths and abysses of import substitution, the agony of choosing between a "domestic drone that doesn't fly at all" and "something assembled from Chinese components that somehow works," or other pressing issues of our time.
3/ "Instead, I'll give a very simple example from my personal biography.
Look, there's a dugout. Six people are sitting in the dugout. Husbands of their wives, fathers of their children, sons of their parents.
69 years ago today, the Hungarian Revolution was entering its seventh day, with a new government in power, official acceptance of the revolutionaries' demands, and Soviet troops leaving Budapest. But tensions were soon rising again.
2/ After days of fierce fighting in Budapest and massacres elsewhere in Hungary, the Soviets finally complete their withdrawal from Budapest after fresh clashes in the city centre. The police, military and insurgent leaders meet for negotiations.
3/ The new government under Imre Nagy, which includes non-communist politicians for the first time since 1948, takes steps to create a new National Guard alongside the police and the army to integrate the revolutionaries into a new political framework.