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Feb 14 23 tweets 4 min read Read on X
1/ Russian warbloggers are outraged at being told by a journalist that it's their own fault that the Russian government is restricting Telegram. They argue that if not for the warblogger community, the military's lies would have gone unchallenged – which is exactly the point. ⬇️
2/ Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Ivan Pankin has prompted fury with his claim that "endless nameless insiders, all those endless bloggers, the smartest people on earth who know everything and who have been spreading all sorts of nonsense" have annoyed the Russian government.
3/ He is almost certainly correct, but the warbloggers aren't having any of it and have responded angrily. They claim they have been consistently right in warning about the failures of the Russian military, to the overall benefit of the war effort and Russian population.
4/ 'Two Majors' retorts:

"And if it weren't for the war correspondents, we wouldn't have left Kherson, we would have taken Kupyansk, and there would have been no invasion of Kursk Oblast.

We also shit in your pants, uncle."
5/ Yana Poplavskaya is equally furious:

"For his remarks about a "panic attack" during the Ukrainian Armed Forces' terrorist invasion of the Kursk region, I would have punched this "journalist" right in the ear."
6/ "If Ivan Pankin were a true professional journalist, he would have known that it was publicity that allowed some people to evacuate; not everyone ended up under Ukrainian occupation.
7/ "Publicity helped immediately dispatch army forces to "where several sabotage and reconnaissance groups attempted to break through" (which later turned out to be thousands of militants).

Publicity helped raise tons of aid for the refugees.
8/ "The Ukrainian Armed Forces' invasion of the Kursk region lasted eight months and 20 days—an invasion of RUSSIA!

Hundreds of civilians killed, thousands wounded, horrific crimes committed by Ukrainian Nazis on Russian soil!
9/ "And here this man sits, confidently claiming that war bloggers "staged a psychological attack" in August 2024. Is this, by any chance, a relative of [Yulia] Vityazeva, who called the enemy's invasion of the Russian borderland a "cunning plan" by the Russian leadership?"
10/ 'Reserve Pioneer' is scornful:

"Without further ado, just listen to how they've started justifying the blocking of Telegram.

In one case, those damned war bloggers are to blame, relaying information directly from the guys on the ground."
11/ "In another, Telegram has suddenly become a platform for colour revolutions again. The last time such a thesis was voiced was in 2018."

'Unofficial Bezsonov' points out the warbloggers' role in informing the Russian public of what is really going on at the front:
12/ "It would have been better to keep quiet about the invasion of the Kursk region. Back then, we heard official statements that it wasn't a large-scale invasion, but some kind of enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group."
13/ "However, the Ministry of Defence quickly changed this formulation to something more realistic. Many Telegram channels, understanding the gravity of the situation, immediately issued well-reasoned warnings to local authorities and residents about the need to evacuate.
14/ "Let's imagine that in 2022 we didn't have Telegram, or our war correspondents and other outlets had been too lazy to create and maintain channels.
15/ "The West cut off all information platforms like YouTube, where the main audience of our most national media outlets resided, and, as experience has shown, our media were completely unprepared for this. But that's not the worst part.
16/ "Imagine if, at the beginning of the Special Military Operation, no one had raised the issue of the lack of drones in the Russian Armed Forces on that hated Telegram or started to address it themselves on Telegram.
17/ "The Ministry of Defence at that time cheerfully reported that there were no problems with drones, and that our electronic warfare systems were capable of jamming everything, even NATO satellites.
18/ "Where would the front line be today without this assistance? And what would the army be without drones, thermal imagers, proper first aid kits, and so on?
19/ "And what would troop communications be without Telegram? Four years have passed, and the issue remains unresolved. What four years? The conflict with Georgia in 2008 demonstrated that troop communications were nonexistent.
20/ "And now, without Telegram, there will be problems in the military."

Similarly, 'Verum Regnum' comments:

"If Telegram hadn't allowed such freedom to prevent "certain people" from lying, concealing, and manipulating, no one would have slowed down the messenger."
21/ "They'd have kept hearing about sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the Kursk region and the completely liberated Kupyansk. And they'd never have known about something unimaginable.
22/ "And the cry "the emperor has no clothes" was heard over Telegram, and the tailors who'd been sewing these invisible outfits for years using sacks of gold decided to finally put the issue to rest." /end

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More from @ChrisO_wiki

Feb 15
1/ While Telegram is only part of a wider complex of communications systems used in the Russian army, it comprises a keystone without which the wider system falls apart. A commentary by a Russian warblogger explains the Russian army's communications ecosystem in detail. ⬇️ Image
2/ Responding to comments earlier this week by presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 'Vault No. 8' provides a "briefing note" on the role of Telegram in the Russian military communications ecosystem.
3/ "A typical motorised rifle regiment (today, the basic tactical unit—the military unit that holds the front line) utilises several tools to manage its troops:
Read 41 tweets
Feb 15
1/ While the Russia army struggles with the impact of Telegram and Discord being throttled or blocked by the government, Ukraine has long used a highly sophisticated indigenously developed digital command and control system. Russian warbloggers have highlighted the contrast. ⬇️ Image
2/ Detailed accounts such as the one in the thread below illustrate how Telegram – a commercial app run from Dubai – has been a central tool in the Russian kill chain, allowing for rapid responses to Ukrainian actions. Discord was also heavily used.
3/ Although this approach has been effective, it has now deliberately been rendered unusable by the Russian government. 'Two Majors' compares how Ukraine has approached digital command and control, and never made itself reliant on Telegram:
Read 21 tweets
Feb 14
1/ The Russian army is reportedly forcing its soldiers to abandon Telegram and move over to the government-authorised MAX app. A Russian warblogger explains why the transition will prove to be very difficult. ⬇️
2/ 'Unofficial Bezsonov' writes:

"Some challenges of switching from Telegram to MAX for our military personnel.

Telegram doesn't require a Russian number to be linked, making it difficult for adversaries to [de]anonymise users."
3/ "Max requires not only a Russian number but also real data (according to the messenger's rules), which enemy electronic warfare systems will immediately receive (although a Russian number alone is sufficient for the enemy to identify a user).
Read 16 tweets
Feb 14
1/ Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said (very wrongly) that "It's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine ... frontline communications being provided via Telegram or any other messenger." Warblogger Nikita Tretyakov has a list of other 'unimaginables'. ⬇️
2/ "What else is unimaginable?

It's unimaginable that just a week ago, our troops' communications relied on an enemy country's satellite constellation.
3/ "It's unimaginable that soldiers still obtain many essential items for war and military life (anti-thermal blankets, radios, gasoline-powered and electric tools, inverter generators, etc.) almost exclusively from their salaries or from volunteers.
Read 16 tweets
Feb 14
1/ In January 2026, Ukraine reported killing 34,000 Russian soldiers – on average 1,096 a day, or 7,846 per week. Thousands of Ukrainians have likely died in the same period. Last month in Ukraine was much bloodier than the average monthly death toll at Auschwitz. ⬇️ Image
2/ The extraordinary lethality of the Ukraine war stands out in comparison to recent wars and mass killings:

🔺 At least 7,000 people are reported to have been killed in the recent Iranian uprising. More have died in Ukraine in each week of last month.
3/🔺 At least 84,000 people died in the Gaza war between 7 October 2023 and 10 October 2025 – an average of 3,500 per week. The number of weekly fatalities in the Ukraine war last month alone was more than twice Gaza's monthly average. Image
Read 12 tweets
Feb 13
1/ Six months ago, the newly built Russian Navy tugboat Kapitan Ushakov capsized at its moorings during its final outfitting, when it was 97% complete. It's still there today, resting on its side, leading to some hard questions for the Northern Fleet. ⬇️
2/ The only thing that seems to have changed after six months is that the boat is now encased in ice at the Baltic Shipyard pier in St. Petersburg. It's an "endless disgrace", 'Military Informant' complains. But how and why has it not been raised? Image
Image
3/ The shipyard's owner, Yaroslavl Shipyard (YaSZ), says that because the vessel "is being built under a state defence contract ... there is no permission to disclose this information or comment on it."
Read 14 tweets

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