1/ Donald Trump should be assassinated and US ships sunk in revenge for the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker, say angry Russian warbloggers. Others worry that the episode shows Russia's weakness and inability to protect its own interests, just like in Venezuela. ⬇️ 2/ 'Hard Blog' and others say that Russia needs to be ready to go to war, as mere words won't be a sufficient response to such a serious provocation:

1/ False claims by Russian commanders to have captured Ukrainian towns and villages – a practice known as 'taking on credit' – have likely cost thousands of Russian lives through 2025. A Russian commentary highlights some of the most egregious claims. ⬇️ 2/ The map above, published on the Russian Ministry of Defence's Telegram channel, claims control of settlements near Kupyansk that were never in Russian hands. Similar official maps show the Russian front line kilometres ahead of where independent observers place it.

1/ Could Russia's special forces have carried out America's Venezuela operation? Almost certainly not, admit Russian warbloggers, as they say that the US SOF have capabilities, scale, a level of organisation, and effective management that their Russian equivalents lack. ⬇️ 2/ The spectacular success of the US special forces in capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has led to some sober reappraisals among Russian warbloggers of the relative effectiveness of Russian and American special forces.

1/ Elon Musk faces a spiralling worldwide crisis and growing legal jeopardy over child pornography and nonconsensual sexual images being generated through his Grok AI chatbot. Multiple countries and jurisdictions have now announced investigations into X and xAI. ⬇️ 2/ As reported by Reuters, many thousands of AI-generated sexual images have appeared on X over the Christmas and New Year period. They include images of real women being digitally undressed, repositioned in sexual poses, and covered in simulated semen ('donut glaze').

1/ Russian warbloggers have reacted with derision and embarassment to claims by FSB special forces veterans that they could have done better than the US Delta Force. The US successfully captured Maduro, they complain, while Russia only managed to abduct a raccoon from Kherson. ⬇️ 2/ Two former FSB Alpha Group operators made some eye-catching claims in the Russian news outlet Daily Storm that they could have done far better than the US, but were only holding back for political and legal reasons.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2008090692996706745

1/ Russian special forces veterans say that the US operation in Venezuela was no big deal and they could easily have done the same with their own superior capabilities. However, they haven't attempted to kidnap Zelenskyy because of their respect for international law. ⬇️ 2/ Veterans of the Russian Alpha Group, an elite special forces (spetsnaz) unit of the Federal Security Service (FSB), have been speaking about their impressions of the US capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. They say it was competent but unimpressive.

1/ Vladimir Putin's heavy investment in the regime of Venezuelan former President Nicolás Maduro has been a costly and disastrous failure, according to Russian commentators. They admit that Russia is too weak to stop its allies from being picked off one by one by the West. ⬇️ 2/ Maxim Kalashnikov is scathing about what the fall of Maduro means for Russian foreign policy, saying that it "marks the collapse of the Russian leadership's long-standing PR-fueled foreign policy."

1/ It wouldn't be a real Christmas without a gloomy forecast from Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, Russia's answer to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He sees Trump turning against Russia in 2026, anticipates the loss of Transnistria, and predicts a naval blockade by the EU. ⬇️ 2/ Writing from his jail cell, Girkin predicts a deteriorating outlook for Russia and its war effort in Ukraine during 2026:

"Naturally, no compromise will be reached this year, because it can't be. I hope this has finally sunk in on everyone on the Planet of the Pink Ponies."

1/ Russian warbloggers are furious and chagrined that the US has done to Maduro and Venezuela what their country has failed to do over four years to Zelenskyy and Ukraine. They say it shows Russia's weakness and condemn the Venezuelans for failing to fight. ⬇️ 2/ 'Donetsk Infantry' is frankly envious: "Shoigu and Gerasimov, along with generals from the FSB, SVR, and GRU, are watching and asking, 'Was that even possible?' Some can do it, while others are left with sclerosis, constipation, and comic-book reports. Who studied what?"

1/ What does the apparent capture of Venezuela's President Maduro by US forces mean for the country and wider geopolitics? In all likelihood, not much: it's more likely to be a typical Trumpian made-for-TV production than a turning point. Here's why. ⬇️ 2/ According to information from the Trump Administration relayed by Senator Mike Lee, the current operation is focused only on arresting Maduro, and no further action is expected.

https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/2007395531023352319?s=20

1/ Thousands of Russian soldiers have likely been killed by their own side, with 300 men said to have been murdered in one unit alone. The story of one commander who was killed by another, who was then also killed, highlights an ongoing epidemic of murder, torture and robbery. ⬇️ 2/ A recent report by The New York Times describes how families of Russian soldiers made 6,000 confidential complaints in only six months between April and September 2025. They were accidentally leaked by the office of the Russian human rights ombudsman.

1/ A memorial to African-American soldiers who fought to liberate the Netherlands in World War II was removed to comply with Trump Administration anti-DEI policies, according to newly released records, contradicting later claims about the reasons for the removal. ⬇️ 2/ In November 2025, it emerged that the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) had quietly removed two panels memorialising Black soldiers at the Margraten war cemetery in Limburg. The cemetery itself had been created through their labor.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1987450443643986224

1/ Why do Russian soldiers so often try to freeze or play dead when a drone approaches, in the apparent hope that it won't notice them? Russian warbloggers explain that instructors teach them to do so, based on outdated and incorrect assumptions. ⬇️

https://x.com/front_ukrainian/status/1866453618473287960

2/ As Svyatoslav Golikov puts it, the tactic reflects "the instructor sect of witnesses of freezing, which gave birth to the heresy of the pillars of salt, [which] is now also churning out dead possums...

1/ In fact, not even North Korea does this. The last country to name a warship after a living leader was the Soviet Union with the 1982 Kiev-class aircraft carrier Leonid Brezhnev. This was during the final phase of the Brezhnev cult of personality.

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/2003209345451090014

2/ Even for authoritarian states and dictatorships, this is highly unusual. The Kriegsmarine never named a major ship after Adolf Hitler. Imperial Japan had a major taboo against naming ships after living people. No Soviet warship was named after Stalin.

1/ A Russian soldier says that only the "marginalised" – drug addicts, the homeless and the destitute – are joining the Russian army these days . He says that the war continues because people in Russia profit from it and that its aim is to "dominate and humiliate" Ukraine. ⬇️ 2/ Former Wagner soldier Ruslan from Dagestan, who is now serving under contract to the Russian Ministry of Defence, tells a friend that many soldiers lack motivation because the goals and reasons for what's happening are unclear to them.

1/ A shadow war is being fought over the Russian army's access to Starlink. The Russians face a constant battle with Starlink itself and Ukrainian hackers deactivating their terminals, and obstruction from the Russian customs service holding up grey imports of Starlink devices.⬇️ 2/ Starlink is banned from being exported to Russia, but can be obtained unofficially through grey imports from Central Asia and China. Most Starlink terminals used by Russian forces are obtained by volunteers and shipped across Russia's southern land borders.

1/ When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the town of Irpin, just west of Kyiv, was the closest that Russia reached to the capital. Its soldiers targeted Christian facilities in the town, destroying buildings and burning Ukrainian-language Bibles in the street. ⬇️

2/ One of the buildings targeted by the Russians was the Field Ministries Training Centre of @MissionEurasia, an international Christian organisation based in Wheaton, Illinois. The group trains missionaries throughout the former Soviet Union and provides humanitarian aid.

1/ 790 Russian soldiers from a single unit have died at Pokrovsk, according to a Russian combat medic, with another 900 having deserted according to leaked figures. Another soldier from the same unit says that losses are running at 80-90%. ⬇️
2/ The unnamed medic says that she is serving with the 39th Separate Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade (military unit 35390) at Pokrovsk. She describes how she was on the front line with "young guys" aged 19 or 20:

1/ How does a false report that Kupyansk has been captured by Russia come to be delivered on camera to Vladimir Putin? A Russian warblogger blames a military reporting process that prizes low-value metrics, rewards blind optimism, and eliminates nuance. ⬇️

https://x.com/GloOouD/status/1999761872099127536

2/ 'ZINOVSKY' writes:

"The transfer of operational information from the bottom up in the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Armed Forces is accompanied by a consistent transformation of the initial data as it moves up the chain of command."

1/ A sign of how things are now on the Russian front lines: Russian volunteers declare success after raising enough money to buy a truckload of body bags. ⬇️


2/ From the 'Good staff' Telegram channel:

"Our next item to collect is body bags for our fallen comrades.

As hard as it is for us, and it's always hard for me to write about it, the guys have an urgent need for them."

1/ Ukraine's audacious attack today on a Russian submarine at anchor in Novorossiysk has prompted anger and derision from Russian warbloggers. One complains: "I don't have the strength to comment on this anal fucking anymore." ⬇️

https://x.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/2000597393356755293

2/ Anatoly Shariy comments that the attack on the submarine Varshavyanka is "totally mindblowing." "Is Novorossiysk missing a submarine?" he asks sarcastically.

'Military Informant' comments gloomily that the damage is likely to be severe: