1/ Further updates on the situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine illustrate the relentless nature of the fighting. It's all "blood and rubble", says one Russian soldier, with so many Ukrainian drones that they are "like mosquitoes on a lake". ⬇️
2/ The Russian 'DONTSTOPWAR' Telegram channel has been posting more short updates from Russian soldiers fighting in ruined villages along the frontline in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhanks regions (see below for previous updates):
3/ "Novopavlivka direction: We work between Solone and Volchya. Slowly, we press them to Kotliarivka. We're coming in from the east and south. The terrain is difficult, but we're moving. Kotliarivka is still holding, but it's almost empty with few living souls left.
4/ "They keep pulling up their reserves there, but we're still pushing, and they're having a hard time fighting back, dragging everything they have there.
Preobrazhenka is under control. We went in and cleaned it up.
5/ "Now we are increasing pressure on Troitske and south-west of Bohdanivka. We are trying to enter through the fields where artillery and drones are working on us.
6/ "There are problems with evacuation, there are not enough vehicles, we have to deliver drinking water or candy bars to some positions using copters, which are also fucking nonexistent. They are meeting us head-on.
7/ "Kostiantynivka direction: In the north of Toretsk the fighting is constant. Our assault groups come in and fight to the last as well as [the Ukrainians]. We are trying to squeeze them out from the east through Dyliivka, but they are fighting to the last!
8/ "West of Toretsk they are constantly counterattacking, hitting us with everything they can.
In short, brother, not everything is as sweet as many people think. Please show it to people so they know and don't forget!
9/ "Pokrovka: Good luck. We're sitting in the houses to the east. It's not just that we can't go any further, we can't get out. We're just being knocked out like rats. Every time we go out, we get a minus [a casualty].
10/ "The infantry are pressed against the walls, moving through basements, drones round the clock.
Shevchenko is hell. [The Ukrainians] have drones like mosquitoes on a lake. They fly in all the time. The agricultural firm near Kotlin is simply burned out.
11/ "Everything that was there is burned. Our side didn't even have time to dig in, it was just fucking covered [by artillery] there.
12/ "Dachenske, Lysivka: the guys said there's [a] meat [grinder]. In Lysivka, only the south is holding up well, but the rest of the faggots are no worse. There are no fucking houses, just rubble and blood. Everything is falling apart!
13/ "Novopavlivka: Kotliarivka, Troitske, Bohdanivka.... It's just fucked up! They told us that everything was ours, that Horikhove was almost in our pocket. But in fact, there's meat on the approaches. We're fucked up walking around like blind men. They're flying FPVs non-stop.
14/ "They're flying even on our heels. Our soldiers don't know where they're going or what they're doing. They just go forward. They're told and they go.
15/ "You should have seen how many [Ukrainians] and ours there are per square [meter]. And we don't even have anything to take them out with.
16/ "Lyman, Makiivka: We're barely making it towards Hrekivka [the last Ukrainian-held settlement in the Luhansk region]. With fighting, with losses.
Novomykhailivka is almost ours, but there are already so many corpses there that it's hard to breathe.
17/ "Nove: There's a meat grinder there, [the Ukrainians] have settled in, you can't smoke them out. We're trying, but so far it's not working!
18/ "Bilohorivka [Luhansk]: We're trying to drive them out of the western part of Bila Hora. It's not working. No luck at all. They're sitting there like on a chain. If we don't get through now, they'll roll us back deep.
19/ "And now, unvarnished, this is how it is. No transport. No fucking transport. The wounded are lying in the mud, in trenches, under trees. No one's moving them out. We are not taking our own, because there is nothing to take them with. They just lie there and die.
20/ "A kid was wounded, he was screaming. Then he didn't scream. He lay down. Then he didn't lie down. Communication's down, nobody's talking to anybody. Nobody knows where to go or who's around. Everyone's on their own. Electronic warfare's fucked up. They have unlimited FPVs.
21/ "They cut us up, and we throw sticks at them or shoot shotgun pellets, which they don't have. The worst part is people don't care. We are just bogged down and we have become a number in the reports of the fucking war correspondents."
1/ Russian commanders are robbing and deliberately killing their men, forcing female subordinates into sex and engaging in corruption with impunity, due to attitudes in the Russian army that a Russian commentator says are unchanged since the 19th century. ⬇️
2/ Over the past three years of war in Ukraine, abuses by Russian officers have frequently been reported. Dissent is often punished by sending the culprits to die in unsupported assaults (an approach nicknamed Puzikism, after one particularly notorious commander).
3/ Theft from subordinates is commonplace, with men imprisoned under false pretences, made to pay bribes to be released, or sometimes even murdered.
1/ Only 40% of US Republicans see Russia as an enemy, a majority have a negative opinion of NATO, and an overwhelming majority say they are unconcerned about Russia invading other countries or the consequences of Russia winning in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ A new poll by Pew Research has found that the share of Americans who consider Russia an "enemy" has fallen to its lowest number since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This has been driven largely by Republicans and Republican-leaners changing their views on Russia.
3/ In March 2022, the figure stood at 70%; it is now down to 50%. This reflects Republicans shifting from 58% saying Russia is an enemy last year, to only 40% now. There has also been a slight shift among Democrats, with 5% fewer seeing it as an enemy.
1/ Commenting on a video showing a huge number of destroyed vehicles on a 'road of death' in the Belgorod region, a Russian warblogger describes how the area behind the front lines has become defined by the ranges of various types of Ukrainian drones. ⬇️
2/ The author of the 'Vault No. 8' Telegram channel comments that whereas in 2023 the rear was defined by the ranges of various types of artillery, aided by Ukrainian observation drones, it is now defined by the various types of drones that Ukraine uses:
3/ "– The rear 15 km from the front line can now be safely called close, since in this zone the enemy FPV forces [troops] to move quickly, in single vehicles (from 7 to 15 km, closer than 7 km to the front line - only buggies and motorcycles). From 0 km to 5 km – on foot.
1/ Russian sources complain that they face a "systemic and extremely acute" situation with the supply and capability of drones on the front lines in Ukraine. They say they are still using off-the-shelf Mavics, while the Ukrainians have rapidly advanced their own capabilities. ⬇️
2/ The 'Philologist in ambush' Telegram channel publishes "a signal from the ground from a comrade from an ordinary Russian people's (motorised) rifle regiment":
3/ "I have a few thoughts on our Pokrovsk direction. I don't know about other units, but it's as if we've stopped at the situation from a year ago, when we were mastering the [DJI] Mavics and the FPV [drones].
1/ The Russian naval infantry has introduced its own UAV units to fight in frontline border regions, but senior commanders are reluctant to expand them or pay salaries to the operators. A Russian warblogger complains that "indifferent and useless mediocrities are at the helm". ⬇️
2/ The 'EvilSailor2' Telegram channel is written by a Russian sailor who has become a "trench rat" (i.e. naval infantry) but is still in touch with comrades elsewhere in the fleet. He reports on the Russian Navy's faltering attempts to create land-based UAV units:
3/ "As it turned out, the leadership of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service drew conclusions and introduced UAV operators into the ship's staff of the radio-technical combat unit (BCh-7).
Moreover, these operators undergo combat testing on the border in the combat zone.
1/ A Russian warblogger has compiled a series of updates from the Russian perspective of the ongoing fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine. "We're just going like a herd to the slaughter," says one soldier. ⬇️
2/ The Russian blogger 'DONTSTOPWAR' has summarised the current situation at the front based on "information from our fighters on the ground":
3/ "Novopavlivske direction. Came east of Kotlyarivka. Thought we'd advance now. Fuck it. As soon as they started storming, we were met like dogs. Artillery, drones, fire from everywhere. We pressed ourselves to the outskirts and that's it, a meat grinder began.