War is the first casualty in war – a provocative statement by Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov criticised by the Russian military

Truth, the saying goes, is the first casualty in war. Nowhere is that more true than in Russia, where the Kremlin has engaged in a campaign of false advertising to sell its invasion of Ukraine to the public.

A provocative statement, perhaps – Stremousov might perhaps be mindful of the fact that troublesome leaders of Russian-backed separatist entities have a habit of dying violently – but some of this criticism is not new. Just weeks after Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one of his key domestic enforcers, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, urged the Russian military to expand its campaign, implying that Moscow’s approach had not been brutal enough.

The leader of the defense committee in Russia’s State Duma asked officials to stop lying and level with the Russian public.

The Ministry of defense was evading the truth about the Ukrainian cross-border strikes in Russian regions, whichKartapolov complained about.

Valuyki is in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. When it comes to striking Russian targets across the border, Kyiv has generally adopted a neither-confirm-nor-deny stance.

Russian-appointed quislings have been installed by Moscow to run the occupied regions of Ukranian. Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy leader of the Kherson region, lambasted Russian military commanders for allowing “gaps” in the battlefield that allowed the Ukrainian military to make advances.

Boris said that incompetence and an inability to grasp the experience of war are a serious problem.

But after Russia’s retreat from the strategic Ukrainian city of Lyman, Kadyrov has been a lot less shy about naming names when it comes to blaming Russian commanders.

Writing on Telegram, Kadyrov personally blamed Colonel-General Aleksandr Lapin, the commander of Russia’s Central Military District, for the debacle, accusing him of moving his headquarters away from his subordinates and failing to adequately provide for his troops.

“The Russian information space has significantly deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) that things are generally under control,” ISW noted in its recent analysis.

One of the central features of Putinism is a fetish for World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Punishment battalions, sending soldiers accused of cowardice or wavering against German positions as cannon fodder, and the brutal tactics of the Red Army to fight Hitler are praised by those in the party of war.

Kadyrov has been one of the most vocal critics of the past methods of statecraft, particularly after he was promoted to the rank of colonel general. He recently said in another Telegram post that, if he had his way, he would give the government extraordinary wartime powers in Russia.

Kadyrov said that he would declare martial law and use weapons if he were allowed to do so, because he thought that they were at war with NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made rare public comments specifically addressing the attacks from the Russian Armed Forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

He pointed to a number of events that he blamed on the Ukrainians. Why did the power lines go up from the nuclear power plant?

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not commented on the recent blasts in Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

Reply to Selfish attack on a Ukrainian drone on an airfield in Saratov oblast” by Vlasov governor Roman Busargin

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! Complete silence,” he said.

Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.

Three Russian servicemen were killed Monday after a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defenses as it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, according to Russian state news agencies, citing the defense ministry.

The incident took place in the western port city of Engels, located on the Volga River and 500 miles (more than 800 kilometers) southeast of Moscow. The city houses the Engels-2 military airfield, a strategic bomber air base.

Law enforcement agencies are now investigating the incident at the airfield, said Saratov Oblast Governor Roman Busargin on Monday. The comments were posted on his official Telegram channel after reports of an explosion.

He added that there were “no emergencies in the residential areas of the city,” and that no civilian infrastructure had been damaged. He also extended his condolences to the families of the servicemen, saying the government would provide them with assistance.

In comments Monday, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat did not claim direct responsibility for the drone, but did suggest the attack was the “consequence of what Russia is doing.”

The events of December 5 reminded the spokesman of this situation, after the Russians launched a massive missile strike. If we have to proceed to the shelter, we should take it into account in our plans.

There was an explosion in the sky, which was caught on camera. Gov. Busargin reassured residents that no civilian infrastructure was damaged and that “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

The Ukraine strike on Sunday on Makiivka: a critical investigation of Russian forces in the Sremlov airfield, a city in Crimea

The Ukrainian military said later on Monday that the number of Russian servicemen killed in Makiivka is “being clarified” after claiming earlier that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and a further 300 were wounded. It has not directly acknowledged a role in the strike. CNN can’t confirm the numbers or weapons used in the attack.

The strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, which targets a school that has Russian conscripts, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts.

Russian officials said that four rockets launch from the Ukrainian side hit the Vocational school where the forces were housed. (Another two HIMARS rockets were shot down by Russian air defenses).

The Russian defense ministry on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that 63 Russian servicemen died, which would make it one of the deadliest single episodes of the war for Moscow’s forces.

Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that those responsible for the killing of Russian servicemen in Makiivka must be found, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday.

The high command is unaware of the capabilities of this weapon, said a former official in the Russian-backed Donetsk administration on Telegram. And Igor Girkin, a Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores.

The Chief Commander-in- Chief of the armed forces of Ukraine had sent greetings and well-wishes to the people who were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of Vocational school. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”

According to the former official, the high command is unaware of the weapon’s capabilities.

“I hope that those responsible for the decision to use this facility will be reprimanded,” Bezsonov said. There are many abandoned facilities in the region, with sturdy buildings and enough room for personnel to be quarters.

A Russian propagandist who writes about the war effort on Telegram asserted that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of Ammunition stores.

The military equipment, which was close to the building without any signs of camouflage, was destroyed. “There are still no final figures on the number of casualties, as many people are still missing.”

Russians who direct the war effort far from the frontline are called unlearned in principle and unwilling to listen to warnings. The Dutch court of mass murder found the former defense minister of the self-proclaimed Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic guilty of downing Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, and he was sentenced to death.

“As you can see, despite several months of war, some conclusions are not made, hence the unnecessary losses, which, if the elementary precautions relating to the dispersal and concealment of personnel were taken, might have not happened.”

The Russian Defense Ministry and the Donetsk People’s Republic: “We are going to have a tough time” following the Bakhmut offensive

Russian forces “lost 760 people killed just yesterday, (and) continue to attempt offensive actions on Bakhmut,” the military’s general staff said Sunday.

Russian units have been in the middle of an offensive for months towards the city of Bakhmut in a mostly rural area of eastern Ukraine, but have suffered heavy losses as Ukrainian forces have targeted them.

Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine over the weekend as fresh rounds of Russian missile strikes hit several regions. At least six people are dead and a man is hurt after a series of attacks in the eastern region.

The Russian ministry of defense said that the main cause of the strike on the occupied city of Makiivka was the use of cell phones by Russian soldiers.

But that account was angrily dismissed by an influential military blogger and implicitly contradicted by the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, pointing to discord in the Russian command over Moscow’s response to the attack.

Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the alias WarGonzo and was personally awarded the Order of Courage by President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin two weeks ago, attacked the Ministry of Defense for its “blatant attempt to smear blame” in suggesting it was the troops’ own use of cell phones that led to the precision of the attack.

He questioned how the Ministry of Defense could be “so sure” that the location of soldiers lodging in a school building could not have been determined using drone surveillance or a local informant.

And he again raised suspicions about the official death toll, which was revised upward by Moscow to 89 from 63, writing that “their number will still be growing.”

In another post on Wednesday, Pegov warned that apathy on the battlefield will lead to more “tragedies.” He said that if you asked him what the most dangerous thing in war was, he’d tell you not to bother.

Pegov was joined in his sentiments by Denis Pushilin, the pro-Russian DPR leader, who pointedly praised the “heroism” of the soldiers killed in the strike shortly after the government pinned the blame on them.

Pushilin said on Telegram Wednesday that they know what it’s like to suffer losses. “Based on the information I have, I can say with certainty that there were many displays of courage and real heroism by the guys in this regiment.”

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s State-Dependent Statement was Misrepresented by the U.S. Military – a Particle Scientist’s Perspective

Russia’s defense ministry statement was mocked by the Ukrainian military. “Of course, using phones with geolocation is a mistake. The spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces thinks that the version is a bit ridiculous.

“Of course, this is a mistake [of the Russians], and I think that now they are engaged in [searching for] who is to blame. He said that they were blaming each other.

“It is clear that this [use of phones] was not the main reason. The main reason was that they were unable to covertly deploy these personnel. And we took advantage of that, having detected the target powerfully and destroyed it,” Cherevatyi added.

No one so far, however – at least publicly – is blaming Vladimir Putin for the deaths. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state-run international network RT and a regular on domestic Russian TV talk shows, said she hoped “the responsible officials will be held accountable” and their names released. She speculated the attack could cause public discontent, and that impunity doesn’t lead to social harmony. Impunity leads to more crimes and, as a consequence, public dissent.”

“This is the first time, it seems, that this has been done publicly during the entire special military operation. I hope the names of these persons and the extent of punishment will also be announced,” she said.

Do Russian Forces Communicate? The Case of the Makiivka Attack: A Cold War, Not a Wreck-Hit?

RIA Novosti reports that the governor of Russia’s southwestern region met with the leadership of the defense ministry in Moscow.

David A. Andelman is an author of a book called A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen and he is a CNN contributor. He was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. You can find more opinion at CNN.

If the Russian account is accurate, it was the cell phones that the novice troops were using in violation of regulations that allowed Ukrainian forces to target them most accurately. Ukraine, however, has not indicated how the attack was executed. But the implications are broader and deeper, especially for how Russia is conducting its war now.

It is telling that days after the deadliest known attack on Russian servicemen, President Vladimir Putin called for a temporary ceasefire, citing the Orthodox Christmas holiday. The move was dismissed as a cynical attempt to seek breathing space amid a bad start to the year for Russian forces.

The satellite-guided HIMARS — short for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System — currently have a range of 80 kilometers. A longer-range 300-kilometer HIMARS has not yet been authorized, despite repeated Ukrainian pleas. (The Biden administration has worried that the longer-range system could expand the war beyond Ukraine’s frontiers and lead to an escalation of hostilities.)

According to Britain’s Ministry of Defense, the Russian military has a bad history of unsafe storage of weapons, but the Makiivka strikes show how dangerous it can be.

Chris Dougherty, a senior fellow for the Defense Program and co-head of the Gaming Lab at the Center for New American Security in Washington, has told me that Russia’s failure to break up or move large arms depots is largely a function of the reality that their forces cannot communicate adequately.

The view shared by other experts is one that they agree on. “Bad communications security seems to be standard practice in the Russian Army,” James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told me in an e-mail exchange.

He is not the only one casting doubt. A post on the Telegram channel named “Grey Zone,” which is linked to a Kremlin ally, said that the soldiers’ blame for the incident in Makiivka began to be placed on them. In this case it is a lie and an attempt to throw off the blame.

Indeed, a number of the most recent arrivals to the war are inmates from Russian prisons, freed and transferred immediately to the Ukrainian front. One can only imagine how appealing the use of cell phones would be to prisoners accustomed to years of isolation with little or no contact with the outside world.

A month earlier, the defense ministry underwent a shakeup when Col. Gen. Mikhail Y. Mizintsev, known to Western officials as the “butcher of Mariupol,” was named deputy defense minister for overseeing logistics, replacing four-star Gen. Dmitri V. Bulgakov, who had held the post since 2008. The location of the arms depot, adjacent to the Makiivka recruits, would likely have been on Mizintsev’s watch.

Still, Putin-favorite Sergei Shoigu remains defense minister — as recently as Saturday, before the Makiivka attack, telling his forces in a celebratory video: “Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable.”

How long Putin can insulate himself and prevent the blame from turning on himself is the key question in the wake of Makiivka. Ukrainian forces have no intentions of decreasing the pressure on Russian troops in the east or south of their country as the war enters a new year.

There seems to be little suggestion that the West is going to let up on its support for Ukraine. Both the US and increasingly Europe, which recently committed to raising its funding by $2 billion in 2023, appear determined to see Ukraine through this winter and beyond.

Just this week, the Biden administration announced the US was considering dispatching Bradley armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron also announced he would be sending light tanks, though Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was urging the dispatch of heavier battle tanks. All of which puts German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under increasing pressure to add its powerful Leopard 2 tanks to the mix.

On Russia’s “Khalatno” Crime and the Cell Phone Explanation of Vladimir Putin’s Battle at the Makiivka

“Grey Zone,” another blogger, called the cell phone explanation a “99% lie,” an attempt to evade responsibility. He said it was more likely an intelligence failure.

Mironov’s comments touched a nerve. Hardliners like him think Putin’s September “partial mobilization” of reservists, calling up 300,000 men, failed to go far enough. They want a full military deployment that would put the country on a path to war. And they want revenge on Ukraine.

The families of those who died in the battle at the Makiivka are mourning their loved ones with a rare public memorial service and priests and a choir singing the liturgy.

Many commentators have raised the idea that Informants may have tipped off the enemy, which is a go to conspiracy theory that Russia often promotes. Then there is the usual complaint after almost any tragedy in Russia, blaming it on “khalatnost:” negligence.