1/ Summer vacations in Crimea are definitely off, in the face of constant Ukrainian drone attacks and worsening fuel shortages across the peninsula. The Crimean economy is said to be in deep trouble, with factories and amenities closing, and workers being laid off en masse. ⬇️ 2/ 'Your News' laments:

"Comrades from Crimea report: the resort season on the peninsula has been almost completely cancelled.

Fuel is hard to come by, or not available at all."

1/ Ukrainian operatives inside Russia are reportedly acting as forward air controllers, according to a Russian source, using infrared laser beams – invisible to the naked eye – to guide drones to targets. This is likely being done to defeat Russian electronic warfare. ⬇️ 2/ 'UAV developer' writes that "in many cities (probably all of them), there are pigs that illuminate targets with infrared lasers. These lasers are invisible to the naked eye, but cameras can see them."

1/ A Ukrainian attack in December 2025 which almost certainly caused serious damage to a Russian submarine in Novorossiysk was reportedly facilitated by an extraordinary security breach by the Black Sea Fleet's commander, Admiral Sergei Pichuk. ⬇️

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

2/ At the time of the attack, it was noted that the Ukrainians had managed to record it using an image-recognising security camera with a view over the military port in Novorossiysk. This indicated a major security breach, given the sensitivity of what it could see.

1/ The commander of Russia's Unmanned Systems Forces, Lt Col Yuri 'Toilet' Vaganov, has reportedly been caught in an apparently major corruption scandal by a federal sting operation. His career now faces being flushed away. ⬇️ 2/ Vaganov has been the head of the Unmanned Systems Forces (BPS) since November 2025. A former plumbing salesman, from which he earned his unofficial callsign (his real one is apparently 'Thunder'), he was a monopoly supplier of drones to the Russian army before his appointment.

1/ Sevastopol is effectively under siege from Ukrainian drones, prompting some Russians to make comparisons with the sieges of 1855 and 1942. Others compare it to J.R.R. Tolkien's Minas Tirith. However, unity is lacking among the inhabitants, says a Russian warblogger. ⬇️ 2/ 'Near the War' describes a recent visit to Sevastopol:

"I confess, I thought several times before driving from Donetsk to Sevastopol. Military acquaintances had long warned me that the enemy might attempt to blockade the Crimean Peninsula."

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:

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. ⬇️

https://x.com/visegrad24/status/2066299200317358365

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."

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."

1/ The news at the weekend that the British Royal Marines have seized a Russian shadow fleet tanker in the English Channel has aroused anger and expressions of shame from Russian warbloggers. They demand that the Russian government should take action. ⬇️

https://x.com/UKDefJournal/status/2066102637062131775

2/ 'Alex Parker Returns' characterises the seizure as "Captain Price landing on a tanker of the Russian shadow fleet. I remind you that you can get revenge on the Brit who is causing trouble by voting for United Russia and rallying more strongly around the president. Be good!"

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. ⬇️

https://x.com/M0nstas/status/2059947916173684971

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.

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.

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.

1/ Ukraine's increasing dominance of the airspace over Crimea and southern Russia is causing great alarm amongst Russian warbloggers. One predicts impending catastrophe for Russia: "Panic and the total collapse of all the main roads." /end

https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2065514764038504468

2/ Commenting on the video above, 'Alex Parker Returns' observes:

"In Crimea, Ukrainian drones are freely flying over major roads. For now, they're programmed to target fuel trucks and various military targets."

1/ Russia's attempts to block Telegram and force the population to switch to the state-approved messenger app MAX have simply resulted in the population adopting VPNs en masse. Ordinary Russians describe how they are evading the government's blocks. ⬇️ 2/ VPNs are a booming business in Russia, with a massive increase in downloads over recent months. Circumvention is routine, even for pro-regime loyalists. According to one Russian citizen, "even the vatniks at work have VPNs."

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2049391169017147611

1/ Outgoing US DNI Tulsi Gabbard's release of "evidence of US biolabs" around the world, with Ukraine singled out in her statement, is being widely cited by Russian commentators as proof of Russia's propaganda conspiracy theories on the topic. ⬇️ 2/ Many Russian warbloggers and commentators have reported the release. A number have taken the opportunity to highlight how, in their view, Gabbard has vindicated Russia's claims about "Ukrainian biolabs" which were supposedly being used to develop biological weapons.

1/ Donald Trump's weak and vacillating approach towards Iran is being watched with keen interest in Russia as a lesson in how to bend America to its will. Russian political scientist Yuri Baranchik recommends that Russia should step up hostile activity against the EU and US. ⬇️ 2/ Writing on his Telegram channel, Baranchik asks: "What can we learn from the Iranian experience?

Iran just gave the world a masterclass in how to negotiate with the US from a position of strength."

1/ Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil refineries are reportedly pushing them into a crisis, with a loss of control over fuel supplies and a lack of effective anti-drone defences. Russian oil giant Rosneft is reportedly pushing for nationalisation. ⬇️

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2065337724798677399

2/ Russia's oil refinery ownership is dominated by a handful of large vertically integrated companies. State-controlled Rosneft and Gazprom Neft control the largest and most modern refineries, along with a number of private companies including Lukoil, Surgutneftegas, and Tatneft.

1/ Many of the Russian soldiers seen daily being blown up by Ukrainian drones are there not because they're trained infantry, but are specialists or even officers who are being sent to their deaths as a punishment. A Russian colonel says he's never seen anything like it. ⬇️ 2/ An 'old recruit' who has survived two years' service in the Russian army writes to warblogger and journalist Maxim Kalashnikov to relay his experience of how the army is routinely sending men to die in assaults for displeasing their superiors, regardless of their expertise:

1/ The Russian government claims that Ukraine's drone attacks against Russia are for political rather than military aims, given the supposed impossibility of a Ukrainian victory. A Russian warblogger warns that this is a dangerous illusion resulting from distorted information. ⬇️ 2/ Svyatoslav Golikov, author of the 'Philologist in Ambush' Telegram channel, writes:

1/ Russian warbloggers are baffled and angry at the Kalashikov Group's announcement of a single-shot shotgun, chambered in a lower-powered calibre, for shooting down drones. One comments that "You can probably only shoot yourself with it". ⬇️ 2/ In a Telegram post on 8 June, the Kalashnikov Group announced a new gun produced by specialists at the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering (JSC TsNIITochMash, part of the Rostec State Corporation under the management of the Kalashnikov Group):

1/ Why is Russia so vulnerable to Ukraine's mid-range drone attacks? Russian drone developer Alexey Chadayev says that it's due to an ongoing and unresolved series of Russian failures in developing new interceptor drones and anti-drone capabilities. ⬇️

https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/2063656362458989008

2/ Chadayev asks:

"What's going on?

The balance of the war has shifted significantly in the enemy's favour, not because of any problems on our part at the front—the same positional dragging continues there, essentially."