1/ Russian warbloggers are reacting with shock and alarm at the Ukrainian attack today on the Russian Baltic Fleet corvette Boykiy near St Petersburg. In particular, they question the apparent lack of effective air defences or anti-drone protection. ⬇️
2/ 'Rybar' comments: "The threat to the fleet is everywhere."
"Judging by the video, at least two hits were recorded. The corvette was in dry dock undergoing repairs, despite the ship being new. And Ukrainian forces intercepted it there."
3/ "They had already done something similar during attacks on Sevastopol several years earlier.
The hit on the Boykiy once again exposes the problem of countering UAVs.
4/ "Current measures aren't entirely effective: the response rate appears to remain high, but strikes continue to appear in various parts of the country. Moreover, this isn't the first time Baltic Fleet ships have been hit.
5/ "Why the corvette was in such an unprotected position is a question with an asterisk. The fleet is extremely vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks, and there are no measures that could be said to "definitely help."
6/ "The chain-link fences stretched across the Navy's surface combat units, pardon the pun, don't really do the trick.
Regarding [Ukrainian] communications, it's highly likely that the Starlink satellite terminal was used.
7/ "The system is already well-established: one of the UAV relay stations extends through the Baltic Sea into the international waters of the Gulf of Finland and transmits a signal to the attack UAVs.
8/ "The only way to combat this is by saturating our air defences. Given the SAM shortage, we need more maneuverable groups and drone interceptor crews that will function not only on paper (the Leningrad Region is experiencing problems with this), but in practice.
9/ "And regarding the misconception that the enemy will ever run out of drones or missiles: production is growing; new capacity was added in March alone, which resulted in an increase in attacks in April and May, so there will only be more raids."
10/ Perhaps inevitably, the channel suggests that the attack was the product of a Western conspiracy:
11/ "Reports on the strike against the corvette ‘Boykiy’ in Western and Ukrainian media are almost unanimously accompanied by one curious footnote: ‘in June 2025, the ship was escorting tankers from Russia’s “shadow fleet” as they passed through the English Channel’.
12/ "And this is no coincidence.
In fact, the West is focusing attention on the attack on one of the Baltic Fleet’s combat units, which was ensuring the safe passage of Russian cargo ships.
13/ "Such measures were taken by the command due to the increasing frequency of attacks on tankers transporting oil from the Russian Federation.
The main problem with this approach is that the Russian Navy’s capabilities are severely limited.
14/ "Its combat fleet is not particularly large, and building even a corvette, as is the established tradition, takes years, not to mention the amount of investment required.
15/ "Every such strike (even one that seems insignificant at first glance) forces the ship into dry dock for repairs. And this, again, given the state of Russian shipbuilding, means time and money, whilst the corvette or frigate itself is out of action for a while.
16/ "And so the collective West, through the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, kills two birds with one stone: it weakens the ability to escort tankers through the English Channel, whilst also expanding the options for exerting pressure on Russia amidst the deterioration…
17/ …of the Russian Navy.
Therefore, when the French authorities inform the Russian Embassy that the captain (a Russian citizen) of the tanker Tagor, which was seized yesterday, has been taken into custody, they are doing so for a reason.
18/ "On the one hand, this sets a precedent for future arrests; on the other, it is a test of the reaction and the limits of what is permissible." /end
1/ Why is Russia so vulnerable to Ukraine's mid-range drone attacks? Russian drone developer Alexey Chadayev says that it's due to an ongoing and unresolved series of Russian failures in developing new interceptor drones and anti-drone capabilities. ⬇️
The balance of the war has shifted significantly in the enemy's favour, not because of any problems on our part at the front—the same positional dragging continues there, essentially."
3/ "Problems have arisen in the rear—due to the exponential increase in the number and capabilities of deep strikes and middle strikes, as well as the focused pressure on our logistics, especially fuel and energy infrastructure.
1/ Russia faces "tectonic events" in the near future due to Ukraine's seizure of the initiative in the war, which presages an "impending disaster", according to a gloomy commentary by Russian journalist and warblogger Maxim Kalashnikov. ⬇️
2/ Kalashnikov draws attention to the convergence of several unfavourable trends for Russia – economic, military and industrial – which he says are seriously threatening a Russian war effort that is faltering and weakened by chronic corruption, inertia, and backward-thinking.
3/ He writes:
"We are on the eve of a new upheaval. Anyone who studied dialectical and historical materialism ... knows that the number of changes always leads to a qualitative leap. Or a collapse.
War in early summer 2026 is the threshold of the latter. What do we have?"
1/ The explosion in Moscow this morning killed Colonel Damir Davydov, head of the procurement department of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to VChK-OGPU. ⬇️
"The BMW X3 in which Damir Davydov, head of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate [GRAU] of the Russian Ministry of Defence, was blown up today belongs to Davydov himself. He purchased the used car in 2024 from a businessman in the Vladimir region.
3/ "More than 15 years ago, Davydov headed the Central Testing Technical Bureau at the 51st Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, located in the Vladimir region.
1/ Russian journalist and blogger Anastasia Kashevarova is baffled and upset by Russia's apparent helplessness in the face of Ukraine's drone campaign. "They're fighting us, and we're wanking our limp dicks," she complains. "Guys, what are you doing?" ⬇️
"The enemy is loading UAVs with all sorts of destructive elements. The enemy doesn't care what they use to kill you, as long as it kills you. The enemy is hitting everything that moves on the roads."
3/ "The enemy doesn't give a damn about the elderly, children, women, or Ukrainian politics—the more Russians die, the better.
The enemy is begging other countries for weapons. The enemy is ready to crawl on their knees just to be given weapons to kill Russians.
1/ The Russian Navy is being condemned as "unteachable" by Russian warbloggers following a Ukrainian attack on an ammunition depot, which is said to have destroyed 5,000 tons of ammunition. They say that the Navy has learned nothing from the war. ⬇️
2/ High-resolution satellite images from before the strike show massive amounts of ammunition being stored in the open air at the 15th Arsenal of the Russian Navy in Petergof, Leningrad region. This Soviet-style practice has led to repeated disasters at Russian Army depots.
3/ As 'Alex Parker Returns' comments, "The ammunition was stored outdoors, so triggering a detonation using drones was no problem. Pypa [Putin], here are the results."
1/ Igor 'Strekov' Girkin must die, says another Russian warblogger. His missives of doom are not universally welcomed by Russia's 'angry patriots', who don't always appreciate the ideological commitments which underlie his criticisms of the Russian war strategy. ⬇️
2/ Girkin has repeatedly issued warnings about Russia's failing strategy in Ukraine, and the consequences thereof, along with criticisms of the Russian leadership. He is currently in prison for his criticisms, but this doesn't seem to have deterred him.