1/ Russian special forces veterans say that the US operation in Venezuela was no big deal and they could easily have done the same with their own superior capabilities. However, they haven't attempted to kidnap Zelenskyy because of their respect for international law. ⬇️
2/ Veterans of the Russian Alpha Group, an elite special forces (spetsnaz) unit of the Federal Security Service (FSB), have been speaking about their impressions of the US capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. They say it was competent but unimpressive.
3/ FSB colonel and former Alpha Group veteran Vitaly Demidkin says: "They acted illegally, inhumanely, and unlawfully, but probably in a normal way. I think that, on the whole, the operation was not that impressive, but rather mediocre."
4/ "There was no resistance, they quickly entered, apparently bribed everyone, found corrupt people, and that was it: they opened the doors."
Igor Senin, another Alpha Group veteran, is similarly unimpressed:
5/ "It didn't take much thought, because the operation was prepared on a grand scale: first, all the infrastructure was taken out, all the main combat points and military facilities that could offer resistance were suppressed. Only then was the main capture itself prepared...
6/ "In other words, they basically entered a building that had already been prepared for them. I don't see any particular professionalism here."
Demidkin says that the Alpha Group is far superior to the US Delta Force, which reportedly carried out the capture of Maduro:
7/ "Our guys are better in every way. In the number of operations, the number of rescued citizens and hostages. They act in seconds, freeing planes, houses, and apartments. And our spirit is probably stronger.
8/ "After all, we fought and continue to fight not for money, but for people in need."
He hasn't heard of Delta Force achieving much of anything before, but would be happy to "meet them somewhere. I mean, on the battlefield or in some other operation."
9/ Both veterans say that the Alpha Group could easily capture President Zelenskyy if ordered to, but Russia hasn't done this for political reasons. Senin says:
"First of all, it's politics. If they'd given the order to carry out such work, it would have been done long ago."
10/ "Just about four months ago, our veteran guys captured about three FBI and CIA agents. No one even managed to resist."
Demidkin is similarly confident: "We could simply kidnap Zelenskyy, but we're complying with international law. So, we're not taking that action yet."
11/ "But if there's an order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I think it's a no-brainer. Study him, track him down, and quietly take him."
12/ (As a reminder, the Russian mercenary group Redut tried to do exactly this on 25 February 2022, but was wiped out in the attempt.)
1/ Russia may be preparing to announce a mass mobilisation, a bad peace deal with the US, or confiscate people's savings to fund the war effort, according to Russian warbloggers. They suspect that the government wants to ban Telegram to block public dissent over such moves. ⬇️
2/ Russian officials have hinted strongly that Telegram, which is currently being slowed down and partly blocked by the government, faces a total ban by 1 April 2026. 'Alex Parker Returns' writes (in a since-deleted post) that the government faces a dilemma:
3/ "Either capitulate in accordance with the renewed spirit of Anchorage—freezing the line of contact, surrendering the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and other whimsical proposals that our esteemed partners will come up with along the way, …
1/ An ongoing epidemic of murder and extortion in the Russian army has reached such a level that Russian warbloggers say the army has become a "gangster supermarket". "Extortion under the threat of death has become an entire shadow industry", says one Russian blogger. ⬇️
2/ Fresh reports of men being "zeroed out" by their commanders are published almost daily. Recently leaked data from the Russian human rights commissioner records over 6,000 complaints in 6 months from soldiers and their relatives about abuses in the army.
3/ Corrupt Russian commanders routinely extort their men with the threat of having them murdered, or sending them into unsurvivable assaults. "Life support" bribes – paid either by the men or their relatives to keep them out of assaults – are commonplace.
1/ Why are Russian soldiers so ill-equipped that they are forced to rely on combat donkeys? Russian warbloggers draw a direct connection to cases of egregious military corruption, such as the recent conviction of Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko for stealing 592 million rubles. ⬇️
2/ Kovalenko's case – for which he was fined just 500,000 rubles ($6,519) and spared jail – has attracted outrage from many Russian commentators. As they point out, it is merely one of many similar cases over the past three decades.
1/ Ukraine's rapid advances in recent days have revealed that many Russian claims of capturing settlements along the length of the front were false or tenous. Russian warbloggers complain that this has exposed more lies by their side's commanders. 📷
2/ Rybar provides a gloomy assessment of Ukraine's progress:
"The situation on the western flank of the Zaporizhzhia front has deteriorated sharply over the past 24 hours."
3/ "The enemy is attempting to cut off the penetration toward Zaporizhzhia along the shore of the former Kakhovka Reservoir. Ukrainian forces have launched an offensive along a sector approximately 20 kilometers wide.
1/ A retired Russian rear admiral has been convicted of stealing over half a billion rubles allocated to repairing anti-aircraft missile systems. He was fined 500,000 rubles and immediately released from custody. ⬇️
2/ Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko was found guilty yesterday in the Moscow Region Garrison Court of organising a large-scale embezzlement of Russian Ministry of Defence funds allocated to four contracts for the repair of anti-aircraft missile systems between 2013 and 2017.
3/ The fraud involved purchasing faulty components from Ukraine in 2012 – before the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbas – for only 40 million rubles ($521,000) and passing them off as refurbished ones. A total of 592 million rubles ($7.7 m) was reportedly stolen.
1/ The Russian army is continuing to send grossly unfit men to fight in Ukraine. They include a crippled elderly pensioner, a man with a withered arm, and a legless man who has been designated an assault machine gunner. ⬇️
2/ The pensioner is – or now most likely was – 59-year-old Sergei Zuikov from Salavat, who was forced by his employer to sign a military contract in March 2025 despite having a spinal injury. He was not given a medical fitness review before being sent to Ukraine.
3/ Only two months later in May 2025, he was wounded by a mine explosion and received multiple injuries for which he underwent treatment and rehabilitation. His family say that he received no compensation for his wounds.