Stunning

[David Morris]

https://twitter.com/natashabertrand/status/1525909187708043266?s=21&t=_BBC4GEEwo5ilmAo_Lxb0Q



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/world/europe/pro-russian-war-bloggers-kremlin.html

The destruction wreaked on a Russian battalion as it tried to cross a river
in northeastern Ukraine last week is emerging as among the deadliest
engagements of the war, with estimates based on publicly available evidence
now suggesting that well over 400 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded.

And as the scale of what happened comes into sharper focus, the disaster
appears to be breaking through the Kremlin’s tightly controlled information
bubble.


Perhaps most striking, the Russian battlefield failure is resonating with a
stable of pro-Russian war bloggers — some of whom are embedded with troops
on the front line — who have reliably posted to the social network Telegram
with claims of Russian success and Ukrainian cowardice.

“The commentary by these widely read milbloggers may fuel burgeoning doubts
in Russia about Russia’s prospects in this war and the competence of
Russia’s military leaders,” the Institute for the Study of War, a
Washington-based research body, wrote over the weekend.