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 Russian army officer who briefed Vladimir Putin yesterday on the evils of Telegram has been exposed as being a premium Telegram user who doesn't even have an account on the state-approved messenger MAX. Russian warbloggers have erupted in outrage. ⬇️
2/ During the briefing, Lt Col Irina Godunova, a Russian army communications specialist, told Putin that Telegram was "considered a hostile means of communication" and that work was ongoing to "refine MAX" so that "everything will work well on the front line".
3/ Telegram plays a crucial part in frontline Russian military communications, as the thread below highlights. Russian warbloggers, many of them soldiers serving in Ukraine, have vociferously protested the Russian government's apparent plan to block it.
1/ Russian bloggers are waking up to the fact that they live in an oppressive dictatorship with declining living standards. 14 years after Vladimir Putin was reelected as "a strong leader for a great country," commentators are asking: what has Putin ever done for us? ⬇️
2/ Lara Rzhondovskaya, the editor of Novoe Media who writes on Telegram as 'Dear Persimmon', has a plaintive series of complaints six months ahead of Russia's forthcoming presidential elections:
3/ "It's time to start understanding why, and this time, as a citizen, I want to support the government's chosen course and the government itself with my vote.
1/ Did Ukraine recreate a January 2024 attack which sank a Russian corvette in the Black Sea with the sinking of the Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz on 3 March 2026? A Russian source says that the tanker was sunk off Libya by four UAVs and two USVs attacking as a swarm. ⬇️
2/ 'Fighterbomber', which proclaimes itself to be the "chronicles of a retired fighter-bomber [pilot]", often posts information from apparent insider sources within the Russian Air Force, such as news of Russian military aircraft shootdowns and crashes.
3/ The channel reports: "According to the rumour mill, which in turn dreamed it up, four UAVs and two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) arrived at the gas carrier. They struck at the same location, at a coordinated time."
1/ Iran and Russia have a partnership treaty, but that doesn't mean Russia should help China in any way, says a Russian commentator. He argues that Iran is merely a "Chinese gas station" and a "situational partner", and Russian support should be limited to "likes and reposts". ⬇️
2/ Opinion on the US/Israel/Iran war among Russian commentators and warbloggers has been mixed in recent days, with some arguing for Russia to support Iran, some saying it should condemn Iran for 'going crazy', and others saying Russia should stay out of it.
3/ Russian journalist and politician Andrei Medvedev recently caused controversy when he argued that Iran was only an opportunistic ally of Russia, and has a long-term history of contributing to Russian losses and defeats such as in Afghanistan.
1/ Images showing that America's new LUCAS kamikaze drone is equipped with an integrated Starshield terminal have prompted a call from a prominent Russian warblogger for Russia to find "a means to destroy thousands of Starlink satellites now." ⬇️
2/ Photos released by US Central Command show Starshield-equipped Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones being launched against Iran. The disclosure has caused widespread alarm among Russian military commentators.
3/ Starshield is a military counterpart to the civilian Starlink network, with a separate infrastructure and network. In contrast to the thousands of civilian Starlink satellites, there are far fewer Starshield satellites in orbit: reportedly at least 183, as of April 2025.
/1 A village in the Russian Far East which has sent 62% of its able-bodied men to fight in Ukraine has been recognised by the regional administration as Russia's first-ever "village of military glory". Nearly half of the men have already been killed or gone missing in action. ⬇️
2/ Sedanka is a tiny village in Kamchatka with a nominal population of 457 registered inhabitants, but only 258 actually live there, of whom only 67 are men of fighting age (18 to 55 years). Its inhabitants are principally members of the indigenous Koryak and Itelmen peoples.
3/ The village is extremely poor and remote, requiring an 18-hour drive from the regional capital on a road that is only passable between May and October. The local economy is moribund; traditional reindeer herding is long gone and people survive by fishing.