1/ Russian warbloggers are very upset at the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine that leaves the objectives of the 'Special Military Operation' unfulfilled. One asks, "does the death of my boys mean nothing [but] a dog's dick and a hole after the assault?" ⬇️
2/ The prominent Russian war correspondent and propagandist Alexander Sladkov has aroused controversy by arguing that Russia is not fighting for territory but "for Russia’s status in the new global world order that is currently being formed."
3/ "The SMO is part of Moscow's global plan to return to the status ranks. We are breaking in by force, pushing the EU, taking what is rightfully ours – a fair position in the international economy and politics.
4/ "The military is at the center of the main processes, they loudly remind who we are, and that other countries should reckon with us. Not only because we are rich, but because we are rich and strong."
5/ Other Russian warbloggers surmise, probably correctly, that Sladkov is reflecting a new official propaganda line that it doesn't matter if Russia takes all the territory it claims in Ukraine, as long as Trump gives it the "status in the new global world order" that it craves.
6/ This is anathema for ultranationalist warbloggers. "It's too early to slam on the brakes or does the death of my boys mean nothing and I've been here in the militia for so many years for a dog's dick and for a hole after the assault?," asks 'Management Speaks'.
7/ 'Callsign Osetin' writes: "What status can we acquire if we are not fighting at full strength and we are considered weaklings, and our army is not taken seriously in the confrontation with the NATO army (a direct army, and not the [Ukrainians] with all NATO standards),…
8/ …where did you get the idea that Kherson and Zaporizhia will be Russian cities if we have not yet agreed on anything, and territorially they are now with the [Ukrainians]? And we still have a long way to go to Zaporizhia... Some kind of double standards are emerging...
9/ "What is going according to our plan? The fact that the Ukrainian is still sitting in the Kursk region, is it also part of our plan?"
10/ Yaroslav Belousov complains: "The liberated lands of the former Ukraine – our Russian people live in them, groaning under the yoke of the blue-yellow Bolsheviks.
11/ "Russia without Kharkiv, Odesa and Yekaterinoslav [former Russian imperial province covering the modern Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions] is like a person without a leg or an arm: you can live, but still somehow not right...
12/ "Our "return to the status ranks" without the liberated lands of Novorossiya and Malorossiya is a regular soap bubble that will burst so quickly that you won't even have time to blink.
13/ "Only the recovery of the lost inheritance will give others grounds to communicate with us as equals."
'Colonel Kvachkov and his comrades' argues: "It is not about territories. It is about destroying the Russophobic virus that was launched into our people."
14/ "Its consequence was the destruction of the united Russian state and its fragmentation into three warring parts [i.e. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine]. The goal is to reunite these three parts into one whole. This goal is in the interests of Russia.
15/ "This is not the whim of this or that patriot. This goal is objective."
'Roy TV - Maxim Kalashnikov' says sarcastically: "Apparently, we don't need the fertile territories of the Black Sea region with Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa, Transnistria."
16/ "This is not tundra blown by cold winds, really. It turns out that it is cheaper to develop it, permafrost is cooler than rich black soil!
17/ "And in general, it turns out that we fought not for the reunification of Russians and not for the creation of a Great Russia from the Dniester to Sakhalin, not for the destruction of Bandera, but for the status of the Russian Federation in the world...
18/ "And the Kiev Banderas will still have access to the Black Sea. To export bread and raw materials through ports, to import weapons...
19/ "You know those students from Donetsk who were mobilized and thrown into battle in the summer of 2022 without even entrenching tools (they dug trenches with their old helmets).
20/ "Were they fighting for aluminium supplies to the USA? For the Yankees' ability to mine rare earths?" /end
1/ The huge reported scale of corruption in the Russian military wouldn't be possible without the active support and involvement of senior officers. An appeal to Putin from one Russian soldier highlights how even generals are likely to be profiting from the war in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ One of the most important principles of modern Russian society is the concept of 'krysha', literally meaning 'roof' – a term borrowed from the Russian mafia to refer to protection from powerful individuals to enable criminal immunity for allies. It also works in the military.
3/ A Russian soldier has recorded an appeal to Putin describing the corruption he saw in the 139th Separate Assault Battalion, a Transbaikalia-based unit which has fought in the Donbas in Ukraine. He had previously been with the 19th Regiment of the 29th Combined Arms Army.
1/ Russians in pre-trial detention – not even having been convicted of a crime – say they are being tortured and forced to choose between sexual assault and signing a military contract. At the front, they were told they were animals and were wiped out in their first assault. ⬇️
2/ In September 2024, the Russian State Duma adopted a new law allowing the Ministry of Defence to recruit from the 60,000-strong population of pre-trial detainees. As many as 40% were expected to sign up. This has expanded the pool from which the Russian military can recruit.
3/ Tens of thousands of convicts were recruited from 2022 onwards under the auspices of the Wagner Group and later, after Wagner was dismantled, directly by the Russian Ministry of Defence. However, perhaps predictably, detainees say they are being forced to sign up.
1/ North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine in Russia are reportedly causing problems for the local people, including drunkenness, thefts and attempted rapes. It's being blamed on the unusual degree of freedom that they're experiencing fighting for Russia. ⬇️
2/ A message from a private chat channel for Tuvan units says: "The cultural and language barrier makes our imaginary "friends and comrades" from the DPRK absolutely deny military brotherhood, coherence and army discipline."
3/ "15 cases of drunkenness in the past month, 4 fights, 2 attempts to rape civilians and 7 thefts. There are rumors in the unit that it is not only scary to turn your back, you don't even want to give them weapons.
1/ Nearly two years after Yevgeny Prigozhin died, an account has been published of a tense meeting with Vladimir Putin in which the Wagner Group leader rejected subordination to the Russian Ministry of Defence. "Zhenya, you're fucking nuts", Putin is said to have told him. ⬇️
2/ The Russian journalist and warblogger Anastasia Kashevarova, who was an outspoken supporter of the Wagner Group and is writing a book on its rise and fall, has described what happened when Putin and Prigozhin met on 29 June, five days after the Wagner rebellion was called off.
3/ According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, a three-hour gathering of 35 people including Putin and Prigozhin met at the Kremlin. The Wagnerites assured Putin that they would continue to fight for him in Ukraine.
1/ Officers in a Russian rifle regiment are said to be labelling men as deserters to avoid paying them, beating them, denying medical care, forcing female medics into sex, and sending men into assaults without equipment while telling them to scavenge it on the battlefield. ⬇️
2/ The wives, mothers and sisters of men serving with the Russian 54th Motorised Rifle Regiment have published an 'appeal to the Tsar' complaining that their "husbands, sons and fathers are subjected to illegal actions by inhuman beings endowed with power," i.e. army commanders.
3/ One of the mothers says that in the unit, soldiers are illegally labelled as deserters – even when they are still serving – to deprive them and their families of wages and compensation. They are also denied treatment when they are wounded.
1/ A veterans' certificate has become one of the most sought-after documents in Russia due to the benefits it brings. Not surprisingly, this is attracting legions of imposters and 'dead souls', a classic Russian scam dating back at least 200 years. ⬇️
2/ Alexander Borodai, a United Russia deputy in the State Duma, has highlighted how the Russian government's announcement of preferential treatment and generous benefits for Ukraine war veterans is being exploited.
3/ He says: "Since significant preferences have been announced for veterans of the special military operation ... then I assure you that we will now have a huge number of “fake” veterans of the Special Military Operation, simply a gigantic number."