1/ The Russian government's Internet shutdown from 5th to 9th May appears to have been predictably badly implemented. It seems to have spilled out from Moscow across Russia and also affected SMS and phone calls, causing widespread disruption and public anger. ⬇️ 2/ The restrictions were officially explained as security measures leading up to and during the Victory Day parades in Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian firms issued advisories to download maps, stock up on cash, and use Wi-Fi. In practice, far more got broken than anticipated.

1/ Even as Hezbollah pounds Israeli forces in Lebanon with FPV drones, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel says that the Israeli government has rebuffed offers of help from Ukraine and hasn't extended an invitation for President Volodymr Zelenskyy to visit. ⬇️

https://x.com/EthanLevins2/status/2053382981675356516

2/ In an interview with Israeli news outlet Ynet, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, says that Israel is missing an opportunity to learn from Ukraine's experience in countering weaponised drones.

1/ Morale is so good in the Russian army that its soldiers are deliberately committing crimes to get themselves sent to prison and thus save their lives, according to a veteran pro-Russian soldier in Ukraine who has been fighting since 2014. ⬇️ 2/ The Telegram channel 'When the cannons started singing' provides an illustration of the Russian army's current state of mind, from "our friend and subscriber, a war veteran who served with the militia since 2014 and later with the Russian Armed Forces":

1/ Four years into the war in Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is still leaving its soldiers critically short of all kinds of essential military supplies, according to the 'Two Majors' Telegram channel. Donated and self-purchased supplies are only a drop in the ocean. ⬇️ 2/ 'Two Majors' contrasts the very slow, hugely bureaucratic and still heavily paper-based Russian approach to military procurement to Ukraine's nimble Brave1 military marketplace, which allows units to procure what they need online:

1/ A Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine's Donbas region provides a gloomy picture of life on the front lines. A constant flow of doomed stormtroopers go on one-way trips, drones make logistics a game of Russian roulette, and thirsty men drink from muddy, corpse-filled holes. ⬇️ 2/ 'BCh 3' writes on Telegram:

"It’s been said before—war gives rise to many different truths."

1/ The war in Ukraine has been very beneficial for one particular group: Russia's aging elite of super-rich oligarchs, who have recorded a record-breaking increase in their wealth. It's a sign of how sanctions and state capture have hugely boosted the oligarch class. ⬇️ 2/ 'Political Report' notes that the collective wealth of the 155 Russian members of the 2026 Forbes rich list has increased by 11 percent during 2025, reaching a record $696.5 billion, despite the pressure of sanctions and an increasingly difficult economic situation.

1/ Yuri Kozarenko, the high-profile Russian drone developer who was arrested last Friday on fraud charges, is being accused of passing off Chinese products as his own. Other Russian UAV developers say that his firm was notorious for "brazen relabeling of products from China." ⬇️ 2/ The video above shows a drone claimed by Kozarenko's company to be its 'Quadcopter Krechet' model. It's actually a Chinese-made Autel EVO MAX 4T, which has been relabelled as a Russian-made product without even any cosmetic modifications to disguise its origins.

1/ Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin thinks things are terrible in Russia, which is "being beaten and will continue to be beaten" and is being "humiliated before the entire world" due to the failures of "the cretins in power." He also ridicules his prison's motley Victory Day parade. ⬇️ 2/ In a letter to a friend, posted on his Telegram channel, he writes:

1/ The Russian ultranationalist community has exploded into a fit of apoplectic rage over Volodymr Zelenskyy's decree 'permitting' Russia to hold its Victory Day parade. They condemn it as a humiliation for Russia and call for maximum retaliation. ⬇️

https://x.com/JimmySecUK/status/2052857650673574276

2/ Russian Telegram channels have had a meltdown over Zelenskyy's decree declaring Red Square to be off-limits for attacks on 9th May in order "to permit the holding of a parade in the city of Moscow (Russian Federation)." Many helpfully translate it for their readers.

1/ A recent video filmed by Russian soldiers shows Ukrainian AI-controlled Hornet drones hunting for Russian targets near Mariupol. A Russian UAV specialist warns that advanced AI processing will soon turn the Hornet into a fully automated system. ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2053488571122594094

2/ Ukraine introduced the US-designed Hornet into large-scale battlefield use in the last few months. It is already being described by the Russians as a game-changer and a severe threat to their rear logistics, due to its advanced design and AI systems.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2052113873625329717

1/ If patrol boats covered with anti-drone cages aren't crazy enough for you, I present the submarine cope cage. (h/t @covertshoresBsk)

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/2053556632844399043

2/ This photo shows the Project 06363 (Kilo class) submarine Mozhaisk and Project 877EKM (Kilo class, built for tropical waters) submarine Dmitrov, equipped with anti-drone protection, in Kronstadt near St. Petersburg.

1/ A high-profile figure in Russian drone development has been arrested on charges of large-scale fraud. It's another illustration of how Russia's pervasive corruption is hampering its efforts to become a leading developer and producer of drone technology. ⬇️ 2/ On Friday 8 May, the Sverdlovsky District Court of Belgorod arrested Yuri Kozarenko, former CEO of Transport of the Future LLC, and sent him to a pre-trial detention centre. He is under investigation for alleged large-scale fraud; details have not yet been released.

1/ A new military treaty between Russia and Nicaragua has gone into force, enabling Russia to base troops, special forces, and surveillance facilities in the Central American country. However, warns a warblogger, it's now potentially Russia's last strongpoint in the Americas. ⬇️ 2/ Russia and Nicaragua have maintained close defence ties for decades, dating back to Soviet-era support for the Sandinista government in the 1980s. Cooperation has deepened under President Daniel Ortega, with a new agreement signed in November 2025 and now ratified by Russia.

1/ With Donald Trump ("our Trumpushka") increasingly seen as irrelevant to the war in Ukraine, Russian warbloggers are increasingly calling for "demonstrative strikes" on the EU, UK and Canada to force them to cease support for Ukraine and negotiate a peace settlement. ⬇️ 2/ On 15 April 2026, Russia’s Ministry of Defence published detailed lists of European companies and facilities it claimed were producing strike drones (UAVs) and components for Ukraine. It explicitly framed these joint production sites as "potential targets".

1/ If yesterday's Victory Day parade had been a true reflection of Russia's frontline army as it is now, it would have been a chaotic display of battered vehicles, motorbikes, exhausted soldiers on crutches, and donkeys. A Russian warblogger imagines how it could have been. ⬇️ 2/ 'Jon Snow and the Second Singer' writes:

"A parade. It will be led by children carrying portraits of their fathers—old photographs, of course, from their civilian lives, from that time.

Mavic 3 drones will fly overhead.

1/ Ahead of Russia's Victory Day celebrations tomorrow, Russian nationalists are engaged in their traditional pastime of rewriting history to erase the Hitler-Stalin alliance. It was all the fault of the "main bastards", the perfidious British, according to one warblogger. ⬇️ 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:

1/ One indication of the increasing sense of a fin de régime in Russia is that Russian warbloggers are becoming steadily bolder in being critical of, or even abusive towards, Putin himself – previously a bright red line. One commentator lambasts him as a "bunker granny". ⬇️ 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:

1/ As Victory Day approaches in Russia, warbloggers are increasingly despondent and predict the fall of the regime in the face of drone attacks and social and economic problems. They perceive a rapid worsening of the situation and a sense that 'things can't go on like this.' ⬇️ 2/ Alex Kartavykh responds scornfully to a government statement, declaring:

"[The government is] noticing a noticeable shift in public sentiment here. And I'll also note for the record. My audience is slowly going nuts."

1/ As Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day, its death toll from the ongoing war in Ukraine is so enormous that in parts of the country it is approaching or exceeding the number of casualties sustained in World War II. Vast memorials are being installed across the country. ⬇️ 2/ In Naberezhnye Chelny, a recently inaugurated memorial (video above) commemorates the dead of four wars. A single column contains 67 names of those who died in Afghanistan and Chechnya. 800 more names are listed for Ukraine, covering 16 columns.

1/ The paranoia of the Russian authorities is killing vital hypersonic missile research, say Russian warbloggers following the conviction of two researchers for publishing a paper on air intake design. As a result, they say, practically nobody now wants to work on hypersonics. ⬇️ 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.

1/ Independent drone development in Russia is being crushed by the heavy hand of the state, according to Russian warbloggers. They say that large corporations have captured the military procurement system, effectively locking out independent developers. ⬇️ 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: