Jake Epstein
Mon, July 3, 2023
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in New Delhi, India, April 28, 2023.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Russia's claims of a small battlefield victory have drawn criticism from military bloggers.
The milbloggers won't celebrate with Moscow, causing the defense ministry to clash with the writers.
A US think tank wrote that the conflict may indicate a lack of success to report to Putin.
Still grappling with the fallout of the paramilitary Wagner Group's armed rebellion, Russia's defense ministry is looking to celebrate its few battlefield victories in Ukraine, but it's run into a problem and is now clashing with a community of military bloggers, influential voices in discussions of the war.
Ukrainian forces have made small territorial gains during their month-long counteroffensive in the eastern and southern regions, though they have also met considerable resistance by Russian troops dug in along defensive lines.
Russia's defense ministry claimed in a series of statements on Telegram over the weekend that in one particular incident, its military successfully prevented a group of Ukrainian soldiers from attempting to land boats near the Antonivsky Bridge, which is located over the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.
Russian military bloggers, or milbloggers, have disputed some of the defense ministry's claims, according to a Sunday assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank. The milbloggers, said Ukrainian forces had managed to establish positions and that fighting was ongoing.
These writers then became targets of the ministry's ire and were accused of distributing false information and undermining Moscow's claims.
"It is likely that the Russian MoD seeks to censor some Kremlin-affiliated milbloggers out of a concern that these ultranationalists may expose Russian military failures" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ISW experts wrote in their analysis. "The Russian MoD's conflict with the milblogger community over a trivial combat operation may indicate that the Russian military command does not think it has any other successes to report to Putin amidst the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive."
The Russian milblogger community plays an important role in online pro-war ultranationalist spaces, and some of its members have even met with Putin personally.
"One milblogger noted that Russian defense officials worry that milbloggers' coverage of the war endangers their official positions and implied that the Russian MoD may be attempting to recover from the Wagner Group's rebellion," the ISW analysis noted. While that may be the case, exaggerating Ukraine's battlefield losses is not a new tactic from Russian military leadership, which has consistently propagated unreliable information about the 16-month-long war and continues to do so in the wake of a recent mutiny.
A still image from video, released by Russia's Defence Ministry, shows Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during what it said to be an inspection of a storage base of the country's Western Military District at an unknown location in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in this image taken from footage released June 8, 2023.
Russia's claims of a small battlefield victory have drawn criticism from military bloggers.
The milbloggers won't celebrate with Moscow, causing the defense ministry to clash with the writers.
A US think tank wrote that the conflict may indicate a lack of success to report to Putin.
Still grappling with the fallout of the paramilitary Wagner Group's armed rebellion, Russia's defense ministry is looking to celebrate its few battlefield victories in Ukraine, but it's run into a problem and is now clashing with a community of military bloggers, influential voices in discussions of the war.
Ukrainian forces have made small territorial gains during their month-long counteroffensive in the eastern and southern regions, though they have also met considerable resistance by Russian troops dug in along defensive lines.
Russia's defense ministry claimed in a series of statements on Telegram over the weekend that in one particular incident, its military successfully prevented a group of Ukrainian soldiers from attempting to land boats near the Antonivsky Bridge, which is located over the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.
Russian military bloggers, or milbloggers, have disputed some of the defense ministry's claims, according to a Sunday assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank. The milbloggers, said Ukrainian forces had managed to establish positions and that fighting was ongoing.
These writers then became targets of the ministry's ire and were accused of distributing false information and undermining Moscow's claims.
"It is likely that the Russian MoD seeks to censor some Kremlin-affiliated milbloggers out of a concern that these ultranationalists may expose Russian military failures" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ISW experts wrote in their analysis. "The Russian MoD's conflict with the milblogger community over a trivial combat operation may indicate that the Russian military command does not think it has any other successes to report to Putin amidst the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive."
The Russian milblogger community plays an important role in online pro-war ultranationalist spaces, and some of its members have even met with Putin personally.
"One milblogger noted that Russian defense officials worry that milbloggers' coverage of the war endangers their official positions and implied that the Russian MoD may be attempting to recover from the Wagner Group's rebellion," the ISW analysis noted. While that may be the case, exaggerating Ukraine's battlefield losses is not a new tactic from Russian military leadership, which has consistently propagated unreliable information about the 16-month-long war and continues to do so in the wake of a recent mutiny.
A still image from video, released by Russia's Defence Ministry, shows Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during what it said to be an inspection of a storage base of the country's Western Military District at an unknown location in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in this image taken from footage released June 8, 2023.
Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
Wagner Group mercenaries, led by the organization's founder and chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, carried out their short-lived rebellion against Russia's defense ministry in late June after months of rising tensions between the two factions. After quickly capturing the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Wagner traveled toward Moscow, nearly reaching the city, before Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered negotiations between the Kremlin and Prigozhin.
As part of the deal, Prigozhin was cast into exile in Belarus, and Wagner fighters were given the options of returning to their homes in Russia, signing contracts with Russia's defense ministry, or joining their boss in Belarus. Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week that the US has observed Wagner "elements" in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, continue to make use of their huge inventory of heavy Western armor — including advanced tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from the US and its NATO allies — to liberate territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Monday Facebook update that in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions — where Moscow claimed its successes over the weekend — Russian forces "are on the defensive" and concentrating "their main efforts on preventing the advance of Ukrainian troops."
"Last week was difficult on the frontline. But we are making progress. We are moving forward, step by step!" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Monday on Twitter in a post that included a video showing intense combat footage. "I thank everyone who is defending Ukraine, everyone who is leading this war to Ukraine's victory!"
Wagner Group mercenaries, led by the organization's founder and chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, carried out their short-lived rebellion against Russia's defense ministry in late June after months of rising tensions between the two factions. After quickly capturing the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Wagner traveled toward Moscow, nearly reaching the city, before Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered negotiations between the Kremlin and Prigozhin.
As part of the deal, Prigozhin was cast into exile in Belarus, and Wagner fighters were given the options of returning to their homes in Russia, signing contracts with Russia's defense ministry, or joining their boss in Belarus. Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week that the US has observed Wagner "elements" in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, continue to make use of their huge inventory of heavy Western armor — including advanced tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from the US and its NATO allies — to liberate territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Monday Facebook update that in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions — where Moscow claimed its successes over the weekend — Russian forces "are on the defensive" and concentrating "their main efforts on preventing the advance of Ukrainian troops."
"Last week was difficult on the frontline. But we are making progress. We are moving forward, step by step!" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Monday on Twitter in a post that included a video showing intense combat footage. "I thank everyone who is defending Ukraine, everyone who is leading this war to Ukraine's victory!"
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