1/ The Russian occupation in Ukraine faces a "catastrophic" situation, according to alarmed Russian warbloggers. "Total drone terror" is now taking place across the entire occupied region, with no place being safe any more. ⬇️
2/ 'Donetsk MartynoVa' warns that all of Russia's gains in Ukraine are now at risk due to a "summer of bloody terror" being wrought by Ukraine's seeming air supremacy:
3/ "The saddest thing is that it's not just the facts that are frightening, but the incredible dynamics that threaten to easily wipe out all the achievements, sacrifices, and plans of a war that has been going on for 12 years.
4/ "Just a couple of weeks ago, the occasional drone strikes and attacks on the Mariupol-Donetsk highway and on the land route (and on all roads leading to the border) were rather exceptional, but now total drone terror has become commonplace.
5/ "Ukrainians call it "we've taken control of the highways." You can call it whatever you like, but the dynamics of recent days seem literally catastrophic.
6/ "Any roadside will reveal the skeletons of burned-out trucks and cars. Civilian buses are being hit. News chats bring endless discussions of road closures in the south because "something happened." Drones not only attack, but also scatter mines that kill people.
7/ "Gasoline is disappearing and rising in price. You open the news in the morning and see people filming videos of themselves unable to return home from Crimea because they're out of fuel.
8/ "At the local gas station, they're all in shock—fuel tanker drivers are refusing to go to Donbas and quitting if management starts pressuring them. Zero condemnation, as they say, and one hundred percent understanding.
9/ "You speed up like crazy if you cross paths with a fuel tanker on the highway. And if it's not far behind, trying to cross the open ground as quickly as possible.
10/ "A demonstrative drone raid specifically on [the city of] Donetsk begins, like clockwork, at midnight. An absolute psychological demonstration of air superiority, on schedule, that's what it is.
11/ "Even if it doesn't hit anything, it's a cheap and effective way to put pressure on people's psyches, triggering a daily death-defying mode. They fly low. Some fly fast, while others sound like a stalling chainsaw choking over a roof.
12/ "While it was quieter tonight than yesterday, on weekend mornings, drones begin flying leisurely over the Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia highways. It's certainly not just a matter of the desire and ability to cut off logistics and deprive our territories of fuel.
13/ "Civilians are being forced to abandon travel to our coast and Crimea. The Ukrainians have been working for this for so many years, and they're happy that the moment has arrived.
14/ "Crimea is looking forward to the [holiday] season, and given what's happening here, I somehow didn't realize the scale of the problems.
15/ "And only the Crimeans' words that the season is already being disrupted brought me back to the thought that the peninsula simply won't have anything to live on if the summer of bloody terror continues. Reservations are already being hastily cancelled, I'm told.
16/ "Naturally, there's a parallel reality in Donbas—with grand projects, mortgages, social activists, and election promises—and, I don't know about you, but I can't seem to connect these two perspectives.
17/ "The Horlivka tragedy teaches us that no effective antidote to drone abuse has been invented. You can destroy a thousand drones, but a hundred will be enough to drench the region in blood.
18/ "The tragedy of the Minsk agreements teaches us another lesson: that you can't negotiate with the enemy, and that the "keep quiet while they kill you" policy leads to disaster.
19/ "That's why the (generally sensible) draconian measures, 12 years into the war, when all mention of overflights and hits was banned, caused such consternation in society.
20/ "It's not the measures themselves, but the anticipation of having to endure torture again with one's mouth sewn shut. It was precisely this sense of impending collapse that sparked such a storm of social discontent.
21/ "This is the Donbas trigger, about which it would be foolish to remain silent.
I won't go into detail—you see what's happening for yourself and can judge for yourself.
22/ "The only consolation in this situation is that Russia has always survived not because of, but in spite of, everything.
23/ "And indeed, we can recall many things over these years that seemed improbable, victories snatched where it seemed hopeless and we should have prepared our shrouds. Things were hard won, but the turnaround in our favour was dramatic." /end
1/ Claims by a senior Russian military official that the Russian army's tactical medicine system is efficient and rapid are greeted with incredulity by Russian commentators. They point out that wounded soldiers are often not evacuated for days or weeks. ⬇️
2/ Deputy Minister of Defence Anna Tsivileva – a relative of Putin's who was controversially appointed a lieutenant general despite no previous military experience – has given an upbeat assessment of the performance of Russian tactical medicine.
3/ At a board meeting of the Russian MOD, Tsilvileva said that since December 2025, work has been undertaken as a high priority to improve the speed of evacuations and the quality of primary care on the front lines.
1/ The Russian-appointed governor of the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region has told Vladimir Putin in person that the R-280 highway to Crimea is under total Russian control. Russian warbloggers dispute this and suggest that he's lying. ⬇️
2/ In a meeting at the Kremlin, Yevgeny Balitsky said:
"The R-280 road, which supplies Crimea, is currently under complete control, the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones has significantly decreased. The means used are constantly being improved."
3/ "There are new methods being used. There are new means being used by the Russian Armed Forces. At your direction, the road was placed under special control."
1/ The arrest in Miami of Andrew and Tristan Tate is being celebrated in Russia, where a few weeks ago they were guests of honour at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Now they're seen as too scummy for Russia; one Russian blogger calls them "genetic garbage". ⬇️
2/ The fact that the Tates were invited to Russia in the first place attracted criticism at the time, given their reputation. Russian nationalist bloggers saw it as a degrading display of subservience to the 'decadent' West. They now see themselves as vindicated by the arrests:
3/ 'Leib-Hussar' isn't mincing words: "This utterly "uncivilised" subservience to the West has been an unquestionable fetish of the domestic authorities for about 40 years. They constantly import and promote all sorts of genetic "garbage" into the country, which,…
1/ The destruction by Ukrainian drones of two of Wildberries' massive warehouses near Moscow is a huge disaster for the Russian economy, which will inflict far more damage than the headline $1.2 billion loss of stock. Here's why. ⬇️
2/ While Wildberries itself can absorb the loss of two of its biggest warehouses – it will not need to compensate sellers as it has very recently disclaimed responsibility for losses caused by enemy action – the impact of the strikes on the wider economy will be significant.
3/ Wildberries is frequently called the 'Russian Amazon', but it has a far more dominant role in the Russian economy than Amazon does in Western economies. Since it was founded in 2004, it's become one of the most structurally important companies in the Russian economy.
1/ Ukraine's attacks on two of Wildberries' biggest warehouses in Russia, causing losses estimated at over $1.2 billion dollars, has once again prompted Russian warbloggers to ask "when will we start fighting for real?" ⬇️
2/ Ever since the great Russian retreat in 2022, after the unsuccessful assault on Kyiv, ultra-nationalist warbloggers and supporters of the war have been demanding to know why the war is not being fought according to their preferences, blaming a 'weak' elite for the failures.
3/ The Wildberries attacks have revived such sentiments, with warbloggers perceiving the massive destruction as a humiliation and sign of Russian weaknees. 'Intelligence Diary' complains:
1/ As Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian shipping and energy targets steps up, Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin warns that "WITHOUT URGENT MEASURES TO COUNTER THE AIR OFFENSIVE, THE DAMAGE TO OUR MILITARY ECONOMY COULD REACH AN OMINOUS PROPORTION". ⬇️
2/ Writing from the prison where he is currently incarcerated, Girkin is (as usual) scathing about the deficiencies of the Russian strategy and alarmed at the scale and ambition of Ukraine's targeting of Russian strategic assets. He writes:
3/ "So, let's start with the enemy's strategy: IT IS CLEAR, UNDERSTANDABLE, LOGICAL, AND SO FAR FAIRLY EFFECTIVE (since countermeasures are not yet capable of stopping effective strikes on the enemy's chosen targets).