1/ Four years on from the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian warbloggers are reflecting on the changes that the war has wrought in Russia. Some Russian soldiers are wondering what it was all for. ⬇️
2/ Nikita Tretyakov writes:
"Our varied thoughts and questions converge on one thing: what is going on out there, in the rear, while we are here, far from our families, loved ones, and past lives, defending the Motherland as best we can and seemingly honourably as possible?"
3/ "What is going on there in this very Motherland behind our backs?
Why does it feel more and more uncomfortable to walk around our cities in military uniform – now including Donetsk and Luhansk – every year? Is it even inappropriate?
4/ "And why, instead of "military," "soldier," or "frontline fighter" have we suddenly started calling them, often with a hint of disgust, "SVOshnik"?
5/ "Why is life—utilities, groceries, gasoline, transportation, everything!—so expensive, as if we were suddenly paying tribute as a country to the Golden Horde?
6/ "Why did we leave for war from a country with an advanced digital development, proud of our convenient use of government services, banks, and even deliveries—…
7/ …and now, when we return on vacation to, say, Krasnoyarsk, we find that our mobile internet (which, by the way, was paid for as a service under a tariff) is disconnected, and geolocation doesn't work?
8/ "Why did we previously save from a frontline soldier's salary for a down payment on an apartment, while now, at best, we save for a mediocre car, even though the salary, apartment, and car themselves are still the same?
9/ "Why, in order to stay in touch with our families on the home front, do we have to constantly invent something—something will be slowed down, something else will be cut off?
10/ "Why, finally, do the people on TV who supposedly represent us talk in such a way that it's clear they know nothing about the front or are simply lying, but then it's also unclear—why?
11/ "There are certainly very clever and very "correct" answers to these questions. But no matter how many answers you give, you can't shake the feeling that while we're here defending our Motherland from those who would destroy and plunder it, someone else,…
12/ …a far more cunning enemy, is plundering and squandering our Motherland behind our backs. He's disfiguring it so completely that soon it will be completely unrecognizable." /end
1/ Russian warbloggers continue to reflect on the war in Ukraine entering its fifth year. The 'hurrah-patriotism' of 2022 is now long gone and the mood is bleak. Nikita Tretyakov says there is "nothing left to hope for; all hopes and illusions have been shattered". ⬇️
2/ In comments that illustrate the political dangers which the Putin regime will face when the war ends, Tretyakov – a mobilised paratrooper, military correspondent, and volunteer – writes on his Telegram channel:
3/ "Four years of war is a monstrously long and daunting time. As culture and history have taught us, such an anniversary demands some analysis, conclusions, and a summing up of interim results...
1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin is marking the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine – after eight years of war in Donbas, which he did much to start – but he isn't celebrating. He sees a "bleak" outlook of mutual exhaustion, caused by poor leadership. ⬇️
2/ Girkin writes from the prison where he is now half-way through a sentence for "inciting extremism" (i.e. criticising the Russian government's mismanagement of the war):
3/ "Today officially marks the fourth anniversary of the start of the Special Military Operation (although according to some sources, it began two days earlier, but was announced to begin on 24 February 2022).
We arrived at this significant date with extremely negative results.
1/ Russians who have never served in the Russian army and have never signed a military contract are nonetheless being rounded up as deserters and sent to their deaths in assault squads. It's the result of an ongoing and still unresolved bureaucratic blunder by Russia's MOD. ⬇️
2/ During the war in Donbas, between 2014 and the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022, thousands of Russian nationalists volunteered to fight for the militias of the Luhansk and Donetsk 'People's Republics'. Many were subsequently discharged.
3/ In December 2022, Russia formally incorporated the Luhansk and Donetsk militias into the Russian Army as part of the annexation of both 'People's Republics'. All current and former members of the militias were reclassified as soldiers of the Russian army.
1/ What is the war in Ukraine even for?, asks a Russian warblogger and paramilitary leader. After four years, the shifting goals of the Russian government have left many of its citizens confused about what its aims are in Ukraine, making it unclear what victory actually means. ⬇️
2/ Zakhar Prilepin sums up the complaints of many warbloggers about the vagueness of Russia's objectives:
"Yesterday, I received a lot of congratulations, and the phrase "I wish you victory!" was a common one.
I hope people say it ritualistically, not seriously."
3/ "It's not even that Russia can't win yet. The point is that we don't have such a goal. We're not planning to go to Kyiv, and we're not planning to go to Odesa. This means there will be no demilitarisation or denazification.
1/ The results of Russia's war have been "mediocre", says a Russian warblogger who is fighting in Ukraine. The army is beset by "corruption, scheming, and collusion", and by the mass intimidation and coercion of soldiers by commanders. He sees tough challenges still to come. ⬇️
2/ 'Vault No. 8' writes:
"The war was not easy from the outset.
The enemy still retains counterattack capabilities; over time, the enemy has become capable of targeting the economy of pre-war Russia and conducting mass terror and sabotage, including in Moscow."
3/ "However, it was only in the fourth year of the war that we began to properly employ strategic strike weapons, which began to yield maximum success. Only in the fourth year of the war did we bring the drone component up to a modern level.
1/ Russia is "entangled in too many sins" for it to have succeeded in Ukraine over the past four years, argues Russian warblogger Yuri Podolyaka. He sees the war as a "salvation plan" for Russia that went badly wrong and "laid bare" the country's problems. ⬇️
2/ "Four years ago, a special military operation began...
It obviously didn't go according to plan. Or rather, not according to the plan our military and political leadership had originally.
As a result, the country changed irreversibly.
3/ "No matter how much anyone would like to turn everything back. And this, perhaps, is the most important result of these four years. Difficult years. But, apparently, necessary. Since God decided so.