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/ Russian political officers – responsible for maintaining the morale of the Russian army's troops – are handing out instructions to their men advising them on the best ways of committing suicide. ⬇️
2/ An understandably startled Russian soldier from the 1444th Motorised Rifle Regiment records a video to a friend or relative explaining what he's just been told in a briefing:
3/ "Are you having fun right now? The political officer, [callsign] 'Beard', gathered us all together and handed out these papers. Look."
1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin isn't impressed with Russia's meatgrinder tactics and warns that the Ukrainians are becoming relatively stronger despite Russia's ongoing attacks. He warns that a full mobilisation is becoming inevitable, and wants to see change in the high command. ⬇️
2/ The jailed Girkin has sent another lengthy missive from his confines, returning to a theme he has promoted before – the wastefulness of the Russian army's tactics and the uselessness of its generals – as well as getting dangerously close to directly attacking Putin himself:
3/ "(in response to a letter dated October 13, 2025)
Dear Alexander Nikolaevich! Thank you for the information—both regarding the much-talked-about post by blogger Kartavykh and other events...."
1/ Chinese-made cars are choking and dying on fraudulently diluted Russian gasoline, which an increasing number of gas stations are selling as the country's fuel shortage worsens. ⬇️
2/ Dozens of Chinese-made Geely cars are reported to have broken down after filling up, with some owners losing control while driving, due to contaminated gasoline killing their engines. Geely Motors say that it's due to the deteriorating quality of Russian gasoline.
3/ According to Geely, the gasoline sold in Russia contains higher levels of oxidants than Chinese gasoline, which is causing the failures.
1/ A Russian soldier and his comrades were tied to trees to be 'sacrificed to Baba Yaga' as a punishment for refusing a suicidal order to fake the capture of a village, after many other men had died while attempting to achieve the same objective. ⬇️
2/ Ilya Sergeyevich Gorkov and three other colleagues were tied to trees for four days with "no food, no water, nothing, and they won’t take us anywhere to the toilet." They were told: "You'll die here under a kamikaze [drone] or under artillery fire."
3/ The Russian army has used 'tree punishments' frequently (see the thread below). The practice has been dubbed 'sacrificing to Baba Yaga' after the nickname for the Ukrainian bomber drones which have caused many Russian casualties.
1/ The Russian army's notorious 'meat assaults' are ultimately the fault of training establishments sending unprepared soldiers to the front line, according to an interesting (though not entirely persuasive) commentary by a serving Russian soldier. ⬇️
"I want to discuss with you the so-called "Meat Assaults." What constitutes a meat assault, and what doesn't?
So, let's begin."
3/ "Most likely, most people believe that a meat assault is when a commander sends in his personnel without providing them with any cover and without first destroying all enemy positions.
1/ A Russian soldier has spoken of how his entire battalion was wiped out at the hands of a perpetually drunken commander who sent men unarmed and unsupported into assaults. He says his unit was in disarray, with routine beatings, alcohol and drug use, and extortion. ⬇️
2/ Platoon commander Anton Alekseevich Putyatov has recorded a video after deserting from the 1435th Motorized Rifle Regiment, serving near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
3/ He says that in the summer of 2024 he participated in assault operations near Pokrovsk. His commander, Captain Arkady Vitalievich Vasiliev, ordered the 2nd Battalion to enter the village of Novohradivka, claiming there was no enemy presence there: