Conversation between Russian soldier in the Donetsk area and his wife: I saw an open field where dead Russian bodies where piled up more then 1,5 meter high. All these dead soldiers are not reported as dead but as missing. Russians soldier that are guarding the field, try to make money. Russians can call them to see if their relative is dead and lying there. If they pay, these guards move body by body trying to find the dead relative. I would say: WELCOME TO THE NEW RUSSIAN WORLD! And they should thank Putin.
Pentagon sees 'anecdotal reports' Russian officers are slow-walking attack orders in Ukraine 'incremental and somewhat anemic' https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian...tal-reports-russian-officers-are-slow-walking There was a lot of speculation Monday on why Russian President Vladimir Putin did not declare any sort of victory in Ukraine, or even say the word "Ukraine," in his Victory Day speech. U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told CNN it was "because even the Russian propaganda machine couldn't back that one up." Russia keeps hitting Ukrainian cities and towns with missiles and bombs, but "they really haven't achieved any significant progress on the lines of access that they had anticipated achieving in the northern Donbas," and "there's been virtually no progress in the south," a senior Pentagon official said Monday, describing Russia's ground campaign as "incremental and somewhat anemic." "Seizing this corner of eastern Ukraine, with its close ties to Russia, was supposed to be an easier task for the Kremlin's blundering army. But the blundering goes on," the BBC's Andrew Harding reported from the Donbas on Monday. "The Russians have been pounding these frontline positions for weeks now, but the big picture here in the Donbas is that the Kremlin's offensive has largely stalled. They've taken hardly any significant towns, and and the Ukrainians are making them pay a heavy price for every scrap of land." The Russians "are trying to do what we — in the U.S. military — refer to it as combined arms maneuver," or moving all your assets "in some sort of orchestrated, organized fashion," but "they have not been very successful," the senior Pentagon official said. "We still see anecdotal reports of poor morale of troops. And the officers refusing to obey orders, and move." These "anecdotal reports" typically involve "midgrade officers" up to battalion leaders who "have either refused to obey orders or [are] not obeying them with the same measure of alacrity that you would expect an officer to obey." "Russian commanders rarely delegate operational authority to their subordinates, who in turn do not gain vital leadership experience," so the "faltering Russian performance on the front line" has "drawn senior commanders onto the battlefield," Britain's Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Sunday. "The forward deployment of commanders has exposed them to significant risk, leading to disproportionately high losses of Russian officers in this conflict. This has resulted in a force that is slow to respond to setbacks and unable to alter its approach on the battlefield."
Let's see what reporters are saying in Russia... Two Russian journalists appear to defy Putin, slamming the war in Ukraine https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/10/media/russia-journalists-criticize-putin/index.html Two Russian reporters appear to have posted at least 30 articles to a pro-Kremlin news site, lenta.ru, on Monday criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and his government's suppression of critics. CNN reviewed the articles -- which were almost immediately taken down -- some pegged to the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, others criticizing the Russian leader for using Victory Day to justify his bloody onslaught into Ukraine. Reporters Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova made several claims in their articles, including that Russian defense officials were "lying to relatives" about those killed in the sinking of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva and accusing Putin of launching one of the "bloodiest wars of the 21st century." "Putin and his circle are doomed to face a tribunal after the end of the war," Polyakov and Miroshnikova published on lenta.ru. "Putin and his associates won't be able to justify themselves or flee after losing this war."Polyakov and Miroshnikova are both business editors at lenta.ru, a major pro-Kremlin Russian news site. The outlet's parent company was recently bought by Russian Sberbank,which is subject to US sanctions for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. CNN reached out to the two reporters and lenta.ru for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The Russian parliament passed a law in early March criminalizing what it considers to be falsehoods about Russia's war in Ukraine. Breaking that law can result in a 1.5 million ruble (around $21,467) fine or up to 15 years in prison. Putin and state-owned media still refer to the full-scale ground war in Ukraine as a "special operation." Independent Russian news site Mediazone published what it said was a statement from Polyakov and Miroshnikova after the articles appeared. "Putin is a paranoid dictator," they're quoted as saying. "Putin must go. He started a senseless war and is leading Russia into a ditch."Polyakov and Miroshnikova not only publicly rejected the government line on the invasion but accused Putin of lying about his intentions in Ukraine from the outset. Putin repeatedly lied about his plans for Russia in Ukraine, naming one goal at first then a completely different one." They pointed to Putin's call for a "liberation of Donbass," "de-Nazification," and the "demilitarization of Ukraine," as examples of what they describe as hastily put together justifications for a needless war. One of the articles in the duo's Victory Day series focused on what they described as the Russian military lying to families of sailors who died on the Moskva flagship. CNN has previously reported on anxious Russian parents scrambling for information about the fate of sailors aboard the ship that was sunk by two Ukrainian missiles sunk last month. The article claimed the Russian navy may have re-circulated old images of the Moskva's crew to suggest more sailors made it off the ship unharmed than really did. "The video of the Black Sea fleet leadership and crew members that the defense ministry circulated after the tragedy could've been archival since a relative of a missing crew member actually recognized him in the video itself."CNN could not independently confirm these claims. Each article on lenta.ru started with the same urgent plea under the headline. Disclaimer: This material is not approved by the state, therefore the presidential administration will delete it... In other words: TAKEake a screenshot urgently ore it's deleted." The duo also appeared to sign off from lenta.ru saying, "We're looking for work, lawyers and probably, political asylum!" "Don't be afraid, don't be quiet," they continued in an apparent call to action. "Resist! You are not one, you are many! The future is yours!... Peace to Ukraine!" Reporting critical of the government in Russian media is rare - especially since the war in Ukraine started in February. The last major journalistic show of dissent from state media was when long-time Russian TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova held up an anti-war sign during a live broadcast on Russia's Channel 1 in March. She was arrested and fined 30,000 rubles. Ovsyannikova is now reporting for a German-owned news outlet from Russia and Ukraine.
only 15% of the territory of Russia is habitable (this is a little more than Sudan and much less than Kazakhstan); ✅ out of 144 million population, only 20 million are able-bodied men: ✅ 1 million of them are in prison; ✅ 1 million serve in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB; ✅ 4 million chronic alcoholics; ✅ 1.5 million drug addicts; ✅ Mordor has 160 regulatory bodies and about 3 billion dollars of bribes are given annually; ✅ The average Russian consumes 18 liters of alcohol per year; ✅ 55 thousand people went missing in 2021; ✅ about 2.5 million children under the age of 14 are beaten by their parents; ✅ 50,000 children run away from home every year to escape domestic and sexual violence; ✅ There are more than 2 million orphans in Russia; ✅ the number of sexual crimes has increased by 25 times in 3 years; ✅ Only in Siberia over the past 7 years, 11 thousand villages and 290 cities have disappeared; ✅ 26 thousand children annually do not live up to 10 years.
Soon the count of dead colonels will reach triple digits... Putin ‘loses 38th, 39th and 40th colonels’ in Ukraine war as casualties mount ‘Demonstrable failings’ have stopped Putin declaring success in Ukraine war, UK ministry of defence says https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-loses-39th-colonel-kharkiv-b2075368.html