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.
4/ "Since then, Davydov has headed the GRAU himself. Since the start of the war, he has repeatedly traveled to the Luhansk People's Republic."
5/ While the car isn't linked to Davydov himself in leaked Russian databases, it appeared on the social media channel of his son Rafail, a 20-year-old cadet at the Military Academy of Logistics.
6/ 'Important Stories' comments:
"Ukrainian intelligence services likely knew the colonel's address for a long time. His personal information appeared on Ukrainian OSINT projects dedicated to tracking down Russian Armed Forces personnel and individuals suspected of war crimes.
7/ "The Evocation project published a brief biography of the colonel, his phone number, his address in Balashikha, and the license plate number of his old Audi.
8/ "Ukrainian analysts directly noted that they were monitoring the Davydov family through the social media accounts of his children and wife. They also noted that some of Davydov's relatives live in the United States."
9/ The Ukrainian 'Book of Executioners' website lists Davydov's personal information and says that "he was directly involved in planning and organizing the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022."
10/ According to The Insider, "the operation was carried out by forces of the Ukrainian Security Service [SBU]". The explosive device was detonated a short distance from Davydov's home in Balashikha at 6 Kozheduba Street (Aviatorov neighborhood).
11/ Kommersant reports that police believe an improvised explosive device with a yield of up to 500 grams of TNT was attached to the underbody of the car. (According to Shot, the bomb was planted inside the car.) Davydov was reportedly not killed outright but died at the scene.
12/ Apart from possible revenge motivations for his role in the invasion of February 2022, Davydov's death deprives the GRAU of its commander at a crucial stage in the war when Ukrainian drones are again targeting Russian ammunition depots.
13/ The killing also highlights the continued inability of the Russian authorities to prevent their senior military officers being assassinated.
14/ It is the second assassination in the same area in just over a year, with Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yaroslav Moskalik being blown up 350 metres from the scene in April 2025. /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."