1/ A notorious Russian serial killer and multiple rapist known as the 'Sosnovsky Maniac' is reported to have died in a drone strike in Ukraine. The news has emerged after an apparently mistaken report that he had escaped from hospital. The army had decorated him for valour. ⬇️
2/ 41-year-old Andrei Kiyko murdered three young women, raped eight, and tried to murder twelve in St Petersburg's Sosnovska Park. He was convicted in 2008 and was sentenced to 22 years, extended to 25 years in 2023 after being convicted of the third murder.
3/ Only a year later, he was released after signing a military contract to fight in Ukraine. He was wounded several times and was awarded the Medal for Valor by the army.
4/ In the spring of 2025, Kiyko disappeared after being wounded again. His commanders declared him AWOL, but he was soon found in a Kronstadt hospital. He was said by fellow soldiers to have subsequently returned to the front and later died in a drone strike.
5/ Kiyko's body has not yet been recovered, but his mother received a missing person's report late last year.
6/ However, earlier this month a search for Kiyko began in the village of Ropsha in the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region. Detectives were reported to have questioned local residents about his whereabouts.
7/ This, however, seems to have been a case of mistaken identity. The case may have been prompted by a call from a citizen who saw a man resembling Kiyko. St. Petersburg police say that they do not have a search warrant out for his arrest.
8/ Kiyko is (or was) one of many convicted murderers, rapists, and cannibals to have been sent to Ukraine to fight. This has caused great frustration and distress for victims' relatives, who say they have been denied justice.
9/ Among the most notorious cases have been 'black realtor' Alexander Tyutin, who had an entire family murdered and subsequently – like many others – was recruited by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group.
10/ Another particularly notorious case was that of the cannibal Denis Gorin, who murdered at least 13 people, ate several of them, and reportedly filled his refrigerator with human flesh. /end
1/ The Russian army's use of dazzle camouflage in an attempt to confuse Ukrainian drones is unlikely to succeed, according to sceptical Russian warbloggers. They point out that it's not the First World War, and trucks on roads aren't ships at sea. ⬇️
"Ukrainian channels published a photograph of a Russian Kamaz truck repainted in zebra camouflage. This was done to confuse American Hornet UAVs, which have AI-assisted final-track lock-on.
3/ "However, if the drone is controlled manually, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a Hornet, repainting it won't help. In that case, it could serve as a temporary solution. Long-term, road protection and an interceptor system are needed."
1/ The Russian army is suffering unprecedented losses that will make a fresh mobilisation essential, according to a Russian warblogger. He warns that the average life expectancy of troops on an assault operation is now down to just 20-35 minutes. ⬇️
2/ In a long commentary, 'House among the Laurels' makes the case that a fresh Russian mobilisation is becoming an absolute necessity given the extreme scale of Russia's personnel losses:
3/ "I personally have no doubts about the predicted wave of mobilisation. I'm discussing this not because it's a "popular" topic, but because in some regions of our country, men have begun being summoned to military commissariats to receive mobilisation orders.
1/ Russian front-line forces in southern Ukraine face a 'critical' situation with food due to Ukraine's middle-strike drone campaign, warns a prominent Russian warblogger. With starvation becoming a risk, he calls for urgent action against the drones. ⬇️
"The enemy’s intense attacks on our logistics have reached the shores of the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian forces are also carrying out drone strikes using ‘Hornet’ drones on the motorway near Berdyansk."
3/ "The direct distance to Orikhiv is approximately 95 km, so Ukrainian Armed Forces operators have no particular problems covering this distance, given the maximum radius of up to 145 km.
1/ Russia has reportedly effectively privatised its air defence systems, shifting their cost onto regions and private businesses. This is likely resulting in wealthy Moscow getting a disproportionate amount of air defences while poorer regions languish. ⬇️
2/ VChK-OGPU (now restored to Telegram following Pavel Durov's falling-out with the Kremlin) reports that according to a source, "the federal centre has effectively shifted funding for the creation of ever-new air defence lines for Russian cities to the regions…
3/ …(Moscow is no exception). The air defence systems themselves come from the Ministry of Defence (and sometimes their creation is financed by regional budgets), but the expensive preparatory and communications work falls to regional budgets.
1/ How could Russia counter Ukraine's ongoing and increasingly devastating drone campaign against its logistics? One Russian warblogger suggests a possible approach, but another says it won't happen due to the army's systemic deficiencies ⬇️
1/ Russian soldiers who are blind, deaf, have lost limbs, or are in wheelchairs, are having their medical discharges cancelled and are being sent back to Ukraine to fight. It appears to be Russia's latest measure to make up for its huge losses. ⬇️
2/ Seriously injured soldiers with category 'G' status (temporarily unfit for service) are being rounded up at home in Russia and declared fit again by military doctors, before being sent back to war. Relatives say that appeals to the authorities are having no effect.
3/ 38-year-old Pavel Podgrushny from Krasnodar was blown up by a mine in 2024, suffering head and chest injuries and losing his hearing and his left eye. He was treated in Volgograd, discharged to recuperate at home, and given a prosthetic eye.