1/ Russia's statistical agency Rosstat has recently highlighted Russia's dire demographic situation, which has become far worse due to its war losses. Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent Grigory Kubatyan suggests nuking Ukraine as a solution. ⬇️
2/ The slumping birth rate has recently been the subject of Rosstat data and has produced alarmed commentary from Russian commentators (see thread below). The war's human losses have also become so huge that they can no longer be ignored.
3/ While Russia has declined to release casualty figures, Western and Ukrainian sources have consistently estimated between 1-1.2 million Russian casualties (with estimates of around 500,000-600,000 Ukrainian casualties). Russian warbloggers seem increasingly to accept this.
4/ Grigory Kubatyan writes on Telegram:
“We don’t know the exact number of losses at the front, but we can get an idea of the order. Let’s round it up to the nearest million (if the enemy’s losses exceed ours, that doesn’t change the situation)."
5/ "Let those who know their statistics better correct me. I found the following figures. According to Rosstat, as of 1 January 2024, there were 68 million men in Russia (including immigrants who managed to obtain passports).
6/ "Of these, only 30% were of working age (they are the ones fighting), the rest were children or the elderly.
7/ "That means there are just over 20 million men in Russia. One million casualties during the Special Military Operation is almost 5 percent of the adult male population. One in 20. How long will it take to get that million back? And nothing will happen!
8/ "The birth rate in Russia is 1.5. Of all the former Soviet republics, this rate is worse only in Ukraine. That means there will be no increase in the native population.
9/ "Our elite's motto, "We have money, we can buy anything," doesn't work well even with goods. It's even worse with people. You can't buy more Russians. You can try buying Afghans or Nigerians, but it's not the same. We are ceasing to be Russia.
10/ "We are becoming something else—a Russia without Russians. And Europe hasn't even entered the war yet, it's only preparing.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed about 200,000 people. A bomb dropped on Kyiv or Lviv in 2022 would also have claimed many lives.
11/ "But it could have frightened Europe enough to stop the war and save the lives of a million Russians and a million Ukrainian soldiers, not to mention civilians. I won't say what the US and Israel would have done. Even North Korea.
12/ "In our situation, mathematics and statistics, alas, are not on the side of humanism.
When a reporter directly asked about the bomb, Press Secretary Peskov replied that the bomb was needed in case of an existential threat to the state. Let's assume that's true.
13/ "But then, strikes on Starobilsk aren't grounds for a threatening response. But, for example, is the enemy's destruction of Belgorod already considered a threat to the state or not? And what about Moscow? Where is the final red line?
14/ "We're like a dinosaur, with such slow reactions that it only notices it's being eaten when it's too late." /end
1/ A leaked order from the Russian army instructs military drivers to disguise their vehicles as civilian ones, repainting them in non-military colours and applying the logos of civilian organisations to their sides. However, this appears to violate the Geneva Conventions. ⬇️
2/ The 'Combat Reserve' Telegram channel has published an extract from the order, which reads:
3/ "3. In view of the enemy’s use of AI-powered strike UAVs, and in order to prevent incidents and avoid the destruction of military equipment during enemy UAV operations, as well as to safeguard the lives and health of service personnel, the formation commander has ordered:
1/ Even as Ukraine invests in accelerating its middle-strike campaign against Russian forces, Russian counter-measures are nowhere to be seen, according to a Russian warblogger and military volunteer. He says that Putin "doesn't give a shit". ⬇️
"The entire route to Crimea, from Taganrog to Chonhar, should have been secured with light air defence – anti-aircraft fire units. It should have been done yesterday. But who is doing this?"
3/ "I recently drove there in a Ural truck to Zaporizhzhia and back: I saw only ‘mushroom clouds’ ahead of me and behind me and heard ‘pops’, but I didn’t see a single anti-aircraft gun or machine-gun crew. So I drove with my pants full of fear. God had mercy on me.
1/ Six crippled Russian soldiers, some on crutches, are sent to their deaths in Ukraine with three bulletproof vests and two automatic rifles between them. "It's just fucking crazy," says the man filming it, who is now likely missing in action. ⬇️
2/ The video was filmed by 50-year-old Sergei Aleksandrovich Pisarchik, a soldier in the Russian Army's 69th Motorised Rifle Division. He sent it to his relatives on 21 May 2026 and stopped communicating afterwards.
3/ The division was reported to be fighting around Vovchansk north of Kharkiv earlier in the year.
Pisarchik says: "We are going on a combat mission with two assault rifles and three body armours for six of us. We are all cripples. It's just fucking crazy."
1/ Ukraine's incessant drone strikes on the Russian rear are causing deep concern among Russian warbloggers. One points out that the entire region's logistics depend completely on road transport and forecasts a "very serious situation" developing. ⬇️
"We repeat what was said earlier: without prompt measures to mitigate the threats to Russian logistics, which consist of gaining dominance in the lower skies and providing technical means to protect the highways and the mobile task forces patrolling…
3/ …and protecting the airspace in the area of the highway, the problems will only mount. The longer the time lag between "noted" and "began to implement," the more we'll be running around with our asses on fire trying to rectify the situation.
1/ Russia's border policies may result in the creation of a "shooting gallery" for Ukrainian drone operators, warns a prominent Russian warblogger. Queues at the still-enforced border between Russia and Ukraine are now an obvious target for attacks. ⬇️
2/ Even though Russia has formally annexed four regions of Ukraine, the border with Russia is still strictly enforced. This is done to prevent the smuggling of weapons and contraband, and to prevent military deserters from escaping back home to Russia.
3/ One of the principal checkpoints is at Veselo-Voznesenka in the Donetsk region, where queues often form. A recent Ukrainian video showed a drone flying near the checkpoint, 150 km from the front line.
1/ Constant Ukrainian drone strikes in the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region have driven the Russians to a desperate measure: they're unbanning Telegram because their mobile air defence teams can't manage without it. ⬇️
2/ The Russian-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky has announced the temporary unbanning of Telegram in the region (see the video above):
3/ "Today, we are experiencing certain difficulties with the alert system. Unfortunately, the Max messenger functionality currently does not allow for consistent delivery of push notifications about threats to the public.