1/ Economic distress in Russia is being reflected in a sharp increase from 1 July 2025 in tariffs for housing and municipal services – by up to 40% in some regions. This comes on top of steadily higher tariffs in 2023 and 2024, with an accelerating yearly level of price rises. ⬇️ 2/ ASTRA reports that tariffs in the regions will increase by between 8.6% in Amur to 21.1% in Perm. Moscow's tariffs will rise by 15%, the surrounding Moscow Region by 13.3% and St. Petersburg by 14.6%.

1/ Russians who have lost arms, legs or eyes are being sent into assaults in Ukraine, with little chance of survival. Despite severe injuries, they are either being denied a fitness assessment or are arbitrarily being rated fit. The men call themselves "meat on crutches". ⬇️ 2/ A Russian soldier has spoken of his experiences with a so-called 'cripple battalion' – a unit comprised of injured soldiers, which rather than recuperating or being allowed to heal or get treatment, is sent to the front line to take part in fresh assaults.

1/ Tens of gigabytes of secret data on Russia's strategic electronic warfare systems has been hacked by the pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK). They say that Russia's EW shield is "not just fragile - it's full of holes" due to multiple flaws and vulnerabilities. ⬇️ 2/ Two weeks ago, the RDK announced that it had obtained a large quantity of data on Russia's EW systems, including technical specifications, diagrams, official correspondence, equipment setup methods, drawings, test reports, and functional information.

1/ Russian soldiers have now been serving for a longer time than any involuntarily mobilised Russian or Soviet troops since 1888, during the Tsarist period nearly 140 years ago. Not surprisingly, this has led many to complain of 'slavery'. ⬇️ 2/ The author of the 'Shelter No. 8' Telegram channel is a Russian soldier who joined the army in 2021. As he points out, the 3 years and 9 months he has served so far is approaching a new record for involuntary service since the end of the Tsarist period.

1/ Russia is reportedly sustaining exceptionally high casualties in its offensive against the Sumy region of Ukraine. A warblogger says that the battlefield is strewn with Russian bodies. Those who survive are reportedly treated as deserters and told they should have died. ⬇️ 2/ 'Belarusian Silovik' writes: "Today I watched several videos filmed by our group, which was semi-encircled in the area of ​​Oleksiivka-Andiivka in the Sumy direction. What meat there is. All the forest plantations are [covered] in bodies."

1/ Manpower shortages mean that Russia is sending scarce aerospace specialists, such as aircraft mechanics, to fight as front line infantry. However, these 'Space Marines' – as they are sarcastically termed by the Russians – are even more poorly supplied than usual. ⬇️ 2/ A commentary by the Fighterbomber Telegram channel highlights the problems that the 'Space Marines' are facing. Because they are not associated with particular regions, they have difficulties accessing the 'humanitarian aid' that most army units depend on.

1/ Two Chechen soldiers among a group who carried out a violent attack on Russian traffic policemen in the Belgorod region have been identified. One of them is reported to be a member of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov's inner circle. ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1938899405450379434

2/ A widely circulated video, which has caused consternation among Russian warbloggers (see thread below), shows Chechens confronting traffic police (VAI) officers at Pyanitskoye in Russia's Belgorod region, 30 km from the Ukrainian border.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1938962329770594470

1/ A video showing Russian traffic police being beaten up by Chechen soldiers, reportedly in the Belgorod region of Russia, has caused confusion among Russian warbloggers. They can't decide which side they hate the most. ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1938899405450379434

2/ As 'Two Majors' describes it, "They were driving on the wrong side of the road without licence plates, for which they were stopped. Judging by the situation at the checkpoint, it was clearly not close to the front line."

1/ Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have gone missing in Ukraine, with relatives clinging to hope that they might still be alive somewhere. The reality, as this video shows, is that their bodies are lying unburied on the front line, which has become a vast charnel house. ⬇️ 2/ A Russian soldier has filmed the front line near Kolisnykivka, south of Kupiansk. The Russians held Kolisnykivka briefly in December 2024 before being driven out by a Ukrainian counter-attack. Russia is reported to have recently retaken the village.

https://x.com/AMK_Mapping_/status/1938764598133563852

1/ Leaked Russian Navy documents indicate that the Russian Black Sea Fleet is keeping several unseaworthy vessels in active service, as part of a scam by senior officers to skim off the large sums of money being allocated to their indefinite repairs. ⬇️ 2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that the Black Sea Fleet is keeping multiple 'wrecks' in active service, including the submarine Alrosa, the large landing ship Orsk, and the catamaran-style missile corvettes Bora and Samum.

1/ The Russian army's political officers – a Soviet institution revived under Vladimir Putin – face a crisis. Russian warbloggers say their traditional methods are now irrelevant in the Internet age, and political officers have become a "department of lies and hypocrisy". ⬇️ 2/ The 'Philologist in Ambush' Telegram channel has published a scathing critique of the role and work of political officers, who work for the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces (GVPU for short).

1/ 'Doomed' Russian troops who made a long trek through a gas pipeline to attack Ukrainian forces have been denied awards or any significant compensation for the lung damage and cancers they contracted. The news is being denounced as a betrayal. ⬇️
2/ Russian forces carried out what they called 'Operation Stream' in March 2025 to ambush Ukrainian forces holding the Kursk region town of Sudzha. Around 600 men were reported to have spent six days walking nearly 16 km through a disused gas pipeline leading under the town.

1/ Russia's soldiers face many serious challenges to their morale and psychological condition, according to a Russian commentary. They face a lack of supplies, food, and equipment, poor training, denied leave, "continuing slavery and bondage" and the temptation of desertion. ⬇️ 2/ Svyatoslav Golikov, the author of the 'Philologist in Ambush' Telegram channel, has written a lengthy overview of the issues behind the poor morale and motivation of many Russian soldiers. He imagines it from the perspective of an army unit's political officer.

1/ Russian commanders have falsely declared potentially thousands of missing and dead soldiers to be deserters, as well as using such declarations for extortion. Relatives say they are being deprived of compensation payments and accuse commanders of concealing their losses. ⬇️ 2/ Huge numbers of Russians have gone missing during the war in Ukraine. According to the Russian journalist Anastasia Kashevarova, who has campaigned for more to be done to find the missing, 99% of them will have died on the front line but have not been recovered.

1/ Commanders in Russia's 80th Guards Tank Regiment are reported to be systematically abusing their men, including beatings, extortion, imprisonment, and murder. A soldier from the regiment recorded a video describing the situation before his imminent execution. ⬇️ 2/ Valery Aleksandrovich Glyzin of the 80th Guards Tank Regiment (military unit 87441), which has recently been fighting near Pokrovsk, recorded a video accusing his commanders of crimes. He says that his own execution had been ordered in retaliation for writing a complaint.

1/ Supplies of volunteer aid for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine are dwindling as volunteers lose interest and bureaucratic obstacles increase, leading to soldiers spending more and more of their own money on supplying themselves with food and equipment. ⬇️ 2/ Since Donald Trump returned to office, Russian warbloggers have repeatedly complained about a collapse in the amount of donated aid and cash. Many Russians apparently believe that Trump's peace initiatives will lead to an imminent ceasefire and have stopped donating.

1/ A Russian schoolteacher mobilised despite ill health has described his time in a notorious Russian army unit. He was told to execute POWs, saw Russian deserters being tortured, and was repeatedly beaten. After he deserted, his lawyer tried to turn him in. ⬇️ 2/ Ilya Elokhin is now in Armenia, seeking political asylum in the West. He says he was opposed to the war when it began and had hoped that his physical ailments would keep him out of it. However, while on sick leave from his job as a primary school teacher, he was mobilised.

1/ 6,000 North Koreans are to be sent to Russia's Kursk region to help with demining and rebuilding. Additionally, Russia and North Korea are to collaborate on building memorials in Russia and North Korea and a memorial museum in Pyongyang. ⬇️
2/ Former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu – who is now Secretary of the Russian Security Council – met Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang last week to discuss Russia-North Korea cooperation. Kim agreed to send 1,000 sappers and 5,000 construction workers to Kursk.

1/ A Russian veteran of the Chechen war who has deserted from the war in Ukraine has described how poorly-equipped Russian soldiers were forced into assaults, shot by their own side if severely wounded, and stopped by Chechen 'blocking detachments' if they tried to retreat. ⬇️ 2/ 42-year-old Alexander (a pseudonym) was mobilised in late 2022 and deserted in August 2023. Although he had health problems caused by his service in the second Chechen war in the early 2000s, these were ignored and he was sent to the occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine.

1/ The Russian army is sending one-armed and one-legged soldiers into assaults, according to a wounded Chechen soldier who has been assigned to a so-called 'cripple battalion'. He says that the men's fitness status is systematically being falsified. ⬇️ 2/ In a video appeal for help addressed to Chechnya's dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, a soldier named Suleiman Khuseinovich Borshigov identifies himself as a member of the 383rd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 11086), based in Voronezh.

1/ Poland's electoral commission has said that there were "major irregularities" in the second round of the recent presidential election, won narrowly by Karol Nawrocki. Votes appear to have been recorded wrongly, or transferred to the wrong candidate. ⬇️

https://x.com/KnightCziwi/status/1931032414253404259

2/ Nawrocki, a pro-Trump figure representing the right-wing PiS party, won by only 360,000 votes. The National Election Commission says there were "incidents that could have an impact on the outcome of the vote" requiring "an in-depth analysis of the reasons".