Kadyrov is bizarre. Here he is begging Ukrainian intelligence services for information on what targets they hit so he can find his right-hand man who apparently was hit by rockets. And in other messages he and others are implying that Prigozhin passed the location info to Ukrainians for the strikes.
Newsweek Russia Spent Billions on Fortifications. Rebels Simply Went Around Them Story by Brendan Cole • 5h ago The Russian Volunteer Corps in northern Ukraine on May 24, 2023. The group was among pro-Ukraine rebels who cross into Russia's Belgorod oblast in a daring raid which highlighted weaknesses in Russia's frontier.© Getty Images/SERGEY BOBOK Fortifications intended to protect the Russian oblast of Belgorod from cross-border attacks are ineffective, according to an investigation by independent Russian media outlets. The region bordering Ukraine has seen frequent shelling attacks and drone strikes since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has often blamed Kyiv for the attacks. A cross-border raid on May 22 from the Ukrainian region of Sumy by anti-Kremlin paramilitaries highlighted the vulnerability of Belgorod oblast and the threat of the war spilling over into Russia. It showed the ineffectiveness of what is known as the Zasechnaya Line of trenches and anti-tank concrete blocks, known as "dragon's teeth," according to a joint investigation by the Russian outlet 7x7 media and the Belgorod outlet Pepel. Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claim. The outlets found that the defense cost 10 billion rubles ($124,285,400) with construction beginning three months after the war started, in April 2022. Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced in March 2023 that the fortifications were complete and deter the threat from Ukraine. However, accounts monitoring the war noted on social media the inability of the new construction to deter the pro-Ukraine rebels. The Telegram channel Spy Dossier, which is linked to Russian security services, said that the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) did not enter Belgorod along the line of defensive fortifications, "but along the 14K-4 Kozinka-Belgorod highway completely unhindered." The Telegram channel of news outlet Country Politics noted that the attack took place to the west of the fortifications. Meanwhile, Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko mocked Gladkov and described the ease with which the groups passed into Belgorod oblast. He wrote on Telegram that the fortifications "turned out to be a shallow ditch, and the rebels simply bypassed the dragon's concrete teeth." Newsweek has contacted the Belgorod governor's office and the Russian defense ministry for comment. Ruslan Leviev, a military researcher and founder of the open-source investigative outlet Conflict Intelligence Team, told 7x7 that the fortifications, which aimed to slow down the advance of enemy ground forces, would not work against drones and artillery. This was because "it is mostly an artillery war" and if Ukrainian forces were to storm them, "troops will first clear the territory with the fortifications with artillery fire." The concrete blocks can then be towed away meaning that "in the current reality, these fortifications are useless," he said, believing a more effective way to protect the border would have been to relocate residents and move military equipment out of artillery range. He told another news outlet, Sirena, which reports on the war, that the fortifications are effective only if they are covered, for example, by artillery and there is no one in the Belgorod region to do this and that even with soldiers in trenches, "gaps will remain." "So even in an obvious place, in Grayvoron, no one interfered with the saboteurs," he said, referring to the area in Belgorod oblast that rebels had entered. The Conflict Intelligence Team told 7x7 that the fortifications were probably touted by the governor to show the Kremlin and the local population that they were taking defending the country seriously but served little purpose. Such fortifications are also present in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, the latter being one of the areas of Ukraine's counteroffensive which started in recent days, raising the possibility that problems are likely to plague the defensive line across the length of the border. Leviev told the outlet that even if Kyiv could push Russian troops back from captured territories and reached the fortifications, they were "unlikely to storm or break through these defenses." Former infantry officer Randy Mott wrote on Twitter about the problems that Russian fortifications might pose for the rest of the war. He said that the Russian lines "are uneven and often poorly manned" and that when they respond to threats in the front, "they commit forces that cannot be readily moved as the battlefield changes with breakthroughs elsewhere." Russia Spent Billions on Fortifications. Rebels Simply Went Around Them (msn.com)
What a resource thin kleptocracy looks like at war. The contracts to build the useless defences were the objective. Same as US of course however the US still has meat on the bone when the military industrial complex is sated.
Russian Troops Killed Waiting for Commander's Motivational Speech: Reports link Russian Troops Killed Waiting for Commander's Motivational Speech: Reports (msn.com)
Ukraine ups its amazing game of 'promoting Democracy' by training child soldiers. Slava Ukraine: https://t.me/ukraine_watch/4215 The Kiev regime has approved children's military camps. Among the instructors are already experienced 16-year-olds who train 12-year-old recruits to fight.
Shocking video shows Russian kids going through military training in Crimea https://nypost.com/2023/03/16/shock...ds-going-through-military-training-in-crimea/ Just snippet of it:- A shocking new video out of Crimea shows Russian efforts to recruit and indoctrinate kids by forcing them through military training exercises, including martial arts lessons and rifle-handling classes. Shared by Russian state media, the disturbing recording shows a young boy and girl in Simferopol, the peninsula’s second-largest city, racing to assemble Kalashnikov-style rifles at their desks, according to a report from Business Insider.....................
"We are at war with our own stupidity and sloppiness, coated with fancy reports from above," the blogger continued. Russian military bloggers are losing their minds over reports that a Russian unit was blasted by artillery while waiting 2 hours for their commander to give a motivational speech Matthew Loh Wed, June 14, 2023 at 10:58 PM EDT·3 min read A view of destroyed Russian armored vehicles and tanks on October 5 after Russian forces withdrew from the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Russian pro-war bloggers are livid over a report that a unit was made to wait hours for a commander's speech. The Russian division came under fire from Ukrainian HIMARS while gathering, per the bloggers. While the unit was reported to have suffered heavy casualties, exact losses haven't been revealed. Russian military bloggers said a Russian unit suffered heavy casualties from Ukrainian artillery while waiting in formation for a commander to give a motivational speech. The claim triggered a flurry of furious posts Wednesday from the pro-war bloggers, who slammed the unnamed commander, The Moscow Times first reported. According to the military blogger Rybar, the incident occurred in Kreminna, a city in Luhansk, just before a Russian division was about to begin an assault. "For two hours, people stood in a crowd in one place and waited for the division commander to give his motivating speech," Rybar wrote. But instead of hearing their commander's words, the division took heavy fire from Ukrainian HIMARS and artillery, the blogger wrote. Several reports say casualties over the incident may have been as high as 200, with as many as 100 dead, Insider's Sam Fellman reported. Rybar claimed that more people had died on this occasion than during several days of heavy fighting in the region. "You can't stand in a column for two hours in one place!" wrote another blogger under the name Two Majors. "What are you doing, father commanders, you people in charge!" "We are at war with our own stupidity and sloppiness, coated with fancy reports from above," the blogger continued. Another Russian military blogger, known by the pseudonym Older than Edda, had harsh words for the unidentified commander. "If by the middle of the second year of the war, there are commanders who bring columns to the front and gather personnel in one big pile, waiting for the enemy artillery to strike, then such commanders must be shot before the formation, even if they are colonels or generals," the blogger wrote. Radio Free Europe reported Wednesday that some influential pro-war bloggers had begun blaming Maj. Gen. Zurab Akhmedov, though they provided no evidence to show he was responsible for the incident. Ahmedov previously commanded Russia's 155th Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet. The brigade suffered heavy casualties in Donetsk under Ahmedov, including the loss of some 300 men in a matter of days, according to an open letter written by the brigade to the government. Kirill Fedorov, another Russian blogger, posted a photo of Ahmedov, highlighting that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met military bloggers the day before and made pointed comments about some Russian generals being "inefficient." Yet another blogger, who writes under the name Notes of Midshipman Ptichkin, complained that Ahmedov had received a promotion from Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu even after his failures in Donetsk. Russian military bloggers appear to be growing increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin's military mistakes in Ukraine, amid continued reports documenting failures or oversights that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Russian troops. Representatives for Russia's defense ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider
Long live the Russian oberfuhrher supreme general. He is leading those Nato dogs into a false sense of security.