1/ Russian forces are being driven back in parts of Ukraine, following the Starlink shutdown and degradation of Telegram. This has prompted one Russian warblogger who is fighting in Ukraine to post a blistering denunciation of the leadership in Moscow. ⬇️
2/ One of the administrators of the 'Management Speaks' Telegram channel, a serving Russian soldier fighting on the front line in Ukraine, wants everyone to know that he has had enough:
3/ "Admin 'Svatovsky' doesn't even know where to begin, and whether anyone will care about our battles in villages and forests while the Israelis are fighting the Iranians.If our guys didn't pretend to be the good guys and negotiate new rules every day,…
4/ …maybe I wouldn't be losing men in the middle of nowhere for a village of 5 houses — I'd just drive past them! All the red lines have long been crossed ten times over, our border territories are being smashed without mercy!
5/ "Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, and other regions are subjected to daily German [sic] shelling, civilians are dying, and we continue to look for excuses for decision-makers who can't pull themselves together and make a show of smashing those faggots!
6/ "[We should be] smashing supply routes, mercenary bases, ports, and their infrastructure, sparing no one, nothing!
7/ "We've fucked up [lost] 11 people in a week, good guys who were waited for at home because someone feels sorry about hitting the faggots who doused our people with foam in 2022, cut off their balls, and mocked them, who are killing our civilians and fucking up our economy!
8/ [Note: this refers to a Russian conspiracy theory, for which there is no evidence, that Ukrainians have killed Russians by injecting expanding construction polyurethane foam into victims' body cavities. It's essential atrocity propaganda.]
9/ "They don't give a shit that people died, they don't give a shit that we have nothing, and they don't give a shit how we're going to accomplish our mission!
10/ "We don't refuse to work and never have, but when you see faggots stealing billions from the army for themselves, and you spend almost your entire salary to support yourself, because the bullshitters who report to the Supreme Commander will never tell him that…
11/ …Comrade Svatovsky has one bird [drone] per company, a half-fucked car for all occasions, and FPV drones paid for out of our own pocket and through the kindness of concerned civilians!
12/ "How long will we have to beg and rot in these fucking swamps, until they hear us and help us, before they start fighting the way Iran and Israel fight!
13/ "How many more people have to die before the generals understand that they can forget about their next star if they're taking casualties? For God's sake, I'm just not myself because of the boys.🫡😓" /end
1/ A shortage of drones reportedly means that Russian drone pilots often don't attack Ukrainian vehicles again after disabling them. This, says a serving Russian soldier, means that the Ukrainians are frequently able to retrieve disabled vehicles. ⬇️
2/ Russian forces in Ukraine have been complaining for a long time that they lack drones, with those provided by the Russian MOD being few and often of poor quality.
3/ Instead, they often have to rely on voluntary donations and unofficial drone production by the so-called 'people's military-industrial complex' – an ecosystem of enthusiasts and ex-military personnel who make or import drones for military use.
1/ News of the destruction of yet another US aircraft on the ground is being met with incredulity by Russian Air Force pilots. They ask if the United States has learned nothing from Russia's own very costly experiences. ⬇️
2/ 'The Voivode Broadcasts', a Telegram channel run by a group of Russian military helicopter pilots, expresses astonishment at pictures published overnight of a US CH-47 Chinook helicopter that was destroyed on the ground in Kuwait.
3/ "I look at this photo and realize that the Americans, with all their budgets and all, haven't studied or systematized our experience in any way.
1/ Russian army commanders are reportedly refusing to allow stored ZSU-23-4 Shilkas mobile anti-aircraft guns to be refurbished and put back into service, despite Russia's desperate need for more defences against Ukraine's increasingly large-scale drone strikes. ⬇️
2/ 'The Voivode Broadcasts', a Telegram channel written by three Russian Aerospace Force pilots, writes:
"I was talking to some guys from one of the repair battalions the other day."
3/ "They were showing us what Category 5 [the lowest condition] equipment they're getting off its knees with their own resources.
BMPs [armoured personnel carriers], BTS [armoured recovery tractors], and so on.
1/ Russia has "shot itself in the dick" with its block on Telegram, according to a scathing commentary. A Russian warblogger notes that pro-Kremlin propagandists have seen huge falls in views of their Telegram channels, but not dissident and pro-Ukraine channels. ⬇️
2/ Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Dmitry Steshin calls it "a day of celebration for foreign agents, as the audience for pro-Russian channels on Telegram has plummeted."
3/ "Margarita Simonyan saw a 52.3% drop, while propagandist Alexander Sladkov saw a 49.4% drop. Views for ‘RT in Russian’ fell by 42%, whilst those for propagandists Vladimir Solovyov and Pavel Zarubin fell by 47.2% and 42.7% respectively.
1/ In a further sign of an economic slump in Russia, the giant vehicle manufacturer AvtoVAZ will shut down production entirely for 17 days due to falling demand and overcrowded warehouses. Its vehicles aren't selling and storage facilities are overflowing. ⬇️
2/ The Russian news outlet Mash reports that AvtoVAZ will shut down its assembly lines for almost the entire period from 27 April to 17 May, with the workforce sent on mandatory leave.
3/ Workers will be sent to do maintenance work between 27-30 April, 12-13 May will be covered by a postponement of vacation days from December, and staff will be paid at two-thirds their normal salary on 14-15 May.
1/ Brutally murdering women in front of their children has effectively been legalised in Russia, due to the Russian government's policy of allowing pre-trial detainees to go to Ukraine to fight rather than facing justice. A horrific case from Voronezh highlights the problem. ⬇️
2/ Madina Nikolaevna Mironenko, a 42-year-old soldier's widow and mother of four children, was dragged out of her house by her hair and stabbed to death by a masked neighbour, in front of her nine-year-old daughter. Another neighbour witnessed the attack and recognised the man.
3/ A group of soldiers' relatives in Voronezh has written an open letter to the authorities:
"There are 220 of us (each of us can write to you personally if necessary), we are relatives of those who, at the call and behest of their hearts,…