Independent military history author and researcher. Coffee tips are appreciated! https://t.co/t1EjNrIZ2c Now also at https://t.co/4qGQ2ffHJJ
2/ 'Historian' Maxim Ravreba asks on his eponymous Telegram channel, "Who started World War II?", and turns to that well-known impartial source, Adolf Hitler, for the answer:
2/ Comparing him to an old woman in a so-called frontline 'granny village', who shelters in her basement as the village is destroyed around her, 'Bomber Harris did nothing wrong' is brutally critical of Putin:
2/ Alex Kartavykh responds scornfully to a government statement, declaring:
2/ Two physicists have been convicted of treason and sentenced to 12½ years in a maximum-security penal colony. The two men – senior researcher Valery Zvegintsev and associate professor Vladislav Galkin – are the latest in a series of scientists to be jailed in the last 2 years. 
2/ The 'Forge of Mordor' Telegram channel asks why Ukraine is innovating faster than Russia, and points to the problems being caused by the Russian state's military procurement system:
2/ Cleanup days, or subbotniks, originated in the spring of 1919 under Lenin's rule. They started as voluntary events mainly for communists (Komsomol members) and sympathisers. In later years, they became a familiar, characteristic feature of the "socialist way of life." 
2/ The Russian newspaper Vedemosti reports that Alexey Semenov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Directorate for Monitoring and Analysis of Social Processes, says Russia needs a "state order for a bright future".
2/ Barclays describes the current situation – in which a huge drop in oil availability is being cushioned temporarily by an equally huge draw on stockpiles – as "living off the insurance". It uses the striking analogy of "a household that loses its income and lives off savings":
2/ Over the past four years, Ukraine has undertaken a massive effort to scale up and indigenise its drone production. There are now over 40 drone component manufacturers in Ukraine, producing an increasing number of indigeneously-made drone parts.
2/ A research note authored by Goldman Sachs strategists Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven has examined the impact of Middle East disruptions on refined product markets, finding that jet fuel and diesel are being hit far harder than crude oil.
2/ Lapin has repeatedly been dismissed from his positions since the start of the Ukraine war, and has attracted a great deal of criticism – likely justified – for his failures in command. Now retired, this unpopularity has not stopped him from declaring his candidacy:
2/ A new report from Goldman Sachs predicts that 14.5 million barrels per day of production have been lost in April 2026. Global stockpiles are being drained at a record 11-12 mb/d which, as JP Morgan has noted, risks a cliff-edge drop in oil supplies.
2/ The exponential point is reached at $250 per barrel, which is well within the range of realistic possibilities predicted by many analysts. Linearity breaks down because of:
2/ A month ago, JP Morgan published a report highlighting that the last oil shipments from the Persian Gulf countries would be delivered by 20th April. That date has come and gone, and oil shipments via the Strait of Hormuz have not resumed.
2/ 'Tungsten' writes: