STRINGER
- Russian milbloggers have slammed Kremlin propagandists after key Russian losses in Ukraine.
- Ukraine's destruction of a Russian column was met with particular criticism.
- A Russian propagandist hit back at the critics, saying they should be jailed for publicizing losses.
Russian military bloggers have hit out at Kremlin propagandists after they ignored recent "blunders" made by the Russian army, the think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.
They pointed to one particularly damning loss in an armored assault against Ukraine's 72nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade near the village of Novomykhailivka in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, per the report.
In the assault, Russian forces reportedly came under attack from Ukrainian drones and sustained heavy losses, losing a column of armored vehicles, including several T-72 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Russian military bloggers slammed the scenes, which were shared by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense on X, formerly Twitter.
One labeled "experts" appearing on Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov's TV show as "traitors and sellouts" for "falsely claiming that Russian forces have adequate supplies of electronic warfare (EW) systems and radios to repel Ukrainian first-person vision (FPV) drones," rather than acknowledging the incident "with criticism and disappointment."
Are FPV drones effective on a battlefield?
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 1, 2024
The warriors from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, with the help of drones, turned a convoy of russian tanks and IFVs into a scrap metal army. pic.twitter.com/z62aeqJA4f
Following the incident, milblogger Maksim Kalashnikov wrote, per the Kyiv Post: "Once again, our column was cut to bits by [Ukrainian] drones. Novomykhailivka. There is no protection from the sky. No small-caliber air defense weapons, no small-scale jamming."
"What is the point of these attacks? So that [senior Russian army commanders] can report they are taking decisive action, and so that they can earn medals by throwing away the lives of their own people?" he added.
Solovyov, a prominent Russian propagandist, said anyone publicizing such videos should be "arrested and put in jail," the report added.
Bloggers also criticised Russian military commanders following the assault, with one accusing them of "complete stupidity and incompetence," the ISW said.
The blogger "questioned how Russian commanders can fail to account for Ukrainian drones in attack plans and afford to lose so much equipment and manpower," the think tank said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to censor information that "discredits" the Russian state or its armed forces, signing a law in 2022 that enabled his government to prosecute those who "spread 'unreliable' information" or "support sanctions against Russia," according to the US Institute of Peace.