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/ While today's incursion into Estonian airspace by three Russian MIG-31s is the most serious such incident in 30 years, it's not the first time that it's happened. It also highlights a strategic vulnerability for Estonia: it does not have a fully agreed border with Russia. ⬇️
2/ The incident happened this morning near the island of Vaindloo off Estonia's north coast. According to the Estonian Defence Forces, the three Russian aircraft spent 12 minutes in Estonian airspace at a depth of less than 10 km, flying east to west.
3/ According to Estonia, the aircraft had no flight plans and their transponders were switched off. At the time of the violation, they also lacked two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic control. NATO forces responded to the incursion.
1/ The Russian government has declared prominent Russian warblogger Roman Alekhin to be a 'foreign agent', to the alarm and bewilderment of many other Russian warbloggers. The move is being linked to Alekhin's recent scandal over fundraising for the war effort. ⬇️
2/ In its weekly Friday publication of the latest individuals and organisations to be sanctioned under its foreign agent law, the Russian Ministry of Justice has listed Alekhin on the grounds that he had collaborated with other 'foreign agents'.
3/ Specifically, according to the Ministry, he had "participated in the dissemination of foreign agent messages and materials to the general public."
1/ A Russian who repeatedly raped his teenage stepdaughter over a period of two years has escaped justice by enlisting to fight in Ukraine. He is only one of a number of Russian rapists and pedophiles who has been able to enlist to avoid going to trial for their crimes. ⬇️
2/ 37-year-old Vladimir Bikbaev was detained in the Krasnoyarsk Territory on suspicion of repeatedly raping his stepdaughter, who was under 14 years old. She complained that he had regularly raped her since 2023 and had threatened to kill her.
3/ Bikbaev was charged with rape earlier this month. However, he was offered the chance to avoid a trial if he agreed to sign a military contract to go and fight in Ukraine. He duly accepted.
1/ Russia's failure to make anything more than grinding incremental progress in Ukraine is causing discontent in the Russian warblogger community. One warblogger blames incompetent and dishonest 'butcher commanders' who have killed their entire units three or four times over. ⬇️
2/ Telegram warblogger 'Ramzai' writes that the ratio of losses between Russian and Ukrainian forces "has gradually leveled out due to the massive use of all types of drones by the Ukrainians, [with] 2-3 UAVs for every one of our soldiers."
3/ "Moreover, half of our enemy's losses are caused by our Aerospace Forces' operations in the enemy's rear. The situation is less rosy along the line of contact.
1/ Russian soldiers in Ukraine are having to drink from muddy puddles due to the ubiquitous presence of Ukrainian drones making it impossible to reliably supply them with clean water. ⬇️
2/ Commenting on the situation, the 'Reserve Group' Telegram channel writes:
3/ "Overall, the water situation for soldiers on the front lines remains unchanged: they have to drink whatever they can find in the nearest forest. The logistics issue here is quite clear, and there's little that can be done to change it." /end
1/ One of Ukraine's most-feared innovations is the Jonik magnetic-influence fuze, which is used to create proximity-activated booby traps. A Russian source describes in detail how it functions, warning: "do not move, do not touch, do not approach." ⬇️
2/ Writing on the Russian social media network VK, 'Warrior' describes how Ukraine uses Jonik fuzes against Russian soldiers:
3/ "Despite the fact that many fighters have heard about mined backpacks, first aid kits, drones and various IEDs, which detonate when picked up or approached, there are still frequent cases when another unpleasant incident occurs – a fighter shows interest in another object,…