1/ The developers of the Russian heavy bomber drone 'Kukushka' have been sent to their deaths en masse, according to the father of one of the men. He says they were deliberately killed as they were regarded as 'inconveniences' by their commanders. ⬇️
2/ Alexander Igorevich Anorin has recorded a video accusing commanders in the 102nd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 91706) of sending a group of UAV developers to their deaths in assaults against Ukrainian positions.
3/ He says the commander of the regiment's 2nd Batallion, Boris Borisovich Kravchenko, call sign "Azak," and the regiment's deputy political officer, Samvel Karapetyan, sent the drone developers to die in an assault near Poltavka in the Zaporizhzhia region in July 2025.
4/ Almost all of the men were killed, including the lead developer, Junior Lieutenant Alexey Olegovich Glazkov, call sign "Azimuth." This was despite another unit seeking to transfer Glazkov to its ranks to that he could develop his drones further there.
5/ According to Anorin, Kravchenko ignored Glazkov's transfer requests, leading to conflict between the two men. On 28 June, he sent Glazkov on a combat mission, and on 23 July, Glazkov was declared missing near Poltavka.
6/ At the time, Poltavka was a frontline village under intense assault from Russian forces. It finally fell in October 2025 after months of fighting.
Anorin speculates that this decision was made deliberately to get rid of 'inconvenient' soldiers. He says:
7/ "There can only be two explanations for this action. Either [Kravchenko and] Karapetyan are working for the enemy, or they were asked to remove an inconvenient group of developers, since the Ministry of Defence has allocated funds for the development of heavy drones,…
8/ …and these funds should be going to the right people in Moscow."
He also accuses the battalion commanders of "extortion, torture, beatings, lynchings, as well as [causing] the monstrous losses in the regiment and battalion with no results whatsoever."
9/ Anorin asks whether the actions of the high command constitute sabotage and treason, and accuses them (including Putin, rather dangerously) of causing enormous losses of manpower:
10/ "Questions arise not only for Boris Borisovich Kravchenko and Samvel Karapetyan, but also for [Chief of Staff] Gerasimov and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Putin.
11/ "Perhaps these people should have no place in the army—from the last battalion commander to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief? Because their negligence, brainlessness, and hysterical actions are leading to enormous losses among our soldiers."
12/ Glazkov's likely death illustrates a frequent cause of complaint among Russian warbloggers: instead of protecting specialists, commanders often send them into fatal assaults when they are short of numbers, as they often are. /end
1/ Former Roscosmos CEO and current Russian Senator Dmitry Rogizin has a novel suggestion for deterring Western countries from seizing 'shadow fleet' tankers. He advocates turning them into giant bombs by rigging them to explode if they're captured. ⬇️
2/ Commenting on the British seizure of the Russian shadow fleet tanker SMYRTOS at the weekend, Rogizin – like many other Russian commentators – likens it to an act of piracy. He suggests:
3/ "I believe we should mine the tankers we use. Initiation should occur when appropriate commands are received or when a tanker deviates from its route and is forced to enter a foreign port.
1/ Russian warbloggers have rushed to disclaim blame for the attack on the historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. They claim the Ukrainians did it themselves, argue that the church isn't sacred to the Ukrainians, and say Ukraine just wants Russia to look bad. ⬇️
2/ Damage, what damage?, asks Andrey Medvedev, claiming that the whole thing was faked for the cameras:
"There's no need to restore anything in general. There's no damage. It's just a vivid night picture. Which suggests a deliberate arson for the sake of a photo."
3/ Lev Vershinin says the church was a legitimate military target:
"My busy schedule prevented me from commenting on the strikes on Kyiv this morning, and thank God for that, because I might have said something stupid in the heat of the moment."
1/ Iran has reportedly assessed that Donald Trump is "mentally incompetent" and has incorporated psychologists into its negotiating team to adapt the wording of the proposed agreement "as if the recipient were a [mental] patient ... whose capacity is limited." ⬇️
2/ The Russian 'Political Report' says that "Iranian authorities have included leading psychologists in the negotiating team to review drafts of all messages before sending them to Trump."
3/ "This is not a supplementary measure, but a direct consequence of an internal assessment that the American president is mentally incompetent, whose reactions cannot be predicted by conventional diplomatic methods.
1/ Russian commanders routinely make false claims to have captured territory, in order to win awards and personal bonuses. However, the army is reportedly stepping up efforts to uncover instances of "painting over" the map of the front line in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ Russian warblogger Vladimir Romanov highlights how the practice is causing mass casualties among Russian soldiers, with some commanders maintaining two parallel maps – one of the true line of contact, and a more flattering 'painted over' version to show to their superiors.
3/ "Returning to the paint-overs, the higher-ups periodically conduct compliance checks on the personnel data.
In some places (like in the Kupyansk sector), this is purely formal.
1/ An increasingly severe shortage of fuel is gripping wide areas of western Russia as well as occupied regions of Ukraine. Russian warbloggers report that there is no fuel at all in some regions, with fuel rationing affecting the army as well as civilians. ⬇️
2/ Following repeated Ukrainian attacks against Russian oil refineries, fuel shortages are spreading across western Russia. The Tatarstan-based Tatneft group appears to be particularly badly affected.
3/ Restrictions on fuel sales have been introduced in St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Moscow region, Samara, Nizhegorod, Udmurtia, Kazan, Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk, and other Russian cities, and in the occupied east and south of Ukraine, most notably in Crimea.
1/ A Russian soldier reports that he and four of his comrades were whipped, chained around the necks, tortured, and imprisoned in a sewer, while his officers stole his possessions and emptied his bank account. He says the men experienced "punishments like in Ancient Rome." ⬇️
2/ Dmitry Strelets is a soldier in the 4th Assault Company of the 68th Tank Regiment (military unit 91714). He says that he has endured torture and slave-like conditions at his Avdiivka-based unit.
3/ According to Strelets, these abuses were perpetrated by a sergeant major with the call sign "Foma," a political officer named "Dobry," his deputy "Bzhik," and their accomplice "Putnik."