Ukraine war diary

Metres and attrit

Chris Johns

I write a (short) daily post for Powerscourt, a Strategic Communications company, based in London and Dublin. The idea is to summarise the news flow around the war in Ukraine - not so much the news that makes the front pages but more the stuff that we find interesting/relevant. News that may have not attracted the attention it deserves. Anyone interested in receiving the short email on a daily basis is welcome to contact Powerscourt here: insights@powerscourt-group.com.

Monday July 3rd

Where does Putin get his information from? Given how tight is Russian control over the war’s narrative, is anyone inside the Kremlin incentivised to supply the Russian leader with accurate data and news flow? Watching Russian TV channels or reading Ministry of Defence (MoD) press releases would be of no help whatsoever. The Institute for the Study of War today notes a somewhat unlikely conflict between the Russian milblogger community and the Kremlin over a relatively trivial combat operation.

Over the weekend, the Russian MoD claimed that a Ukrainian attack in Kherson Oblast was successfully repelled. Specifically, the Russians claim to have thwarted attempted landings of Ukrainian forces on the eastern bank of the Dnipro. The number of Ukrainian troops involved is thought to be small and none of the Russian claims have been verified. 

After the MoD made these claims, Russian milbloggers contradicted them, suggesting that rather than a Ukrainian retreat, fighting is ongoing. The MoD then went on the offensive, not against Ukraine but rather the milblogger community. The MoD accused them of ‘spreading false claims and assisting Ukrainian psychological operations’. It should be remembered that being rude about the Russian military or using the word ‘war’ often lands you in jail in Russia, unless your name is Prigozhin. And unless you are a milblogger - none of them have been arrested in the escalating war of words with the Kremlin.

The ISW thinks that this new fight with milbloggers - who are often fiercely nationalistic and pro war - is because the amateur correspondents are contradicting the information that the MoD is feeding to Putin. It is, apparently, important to report military success to the president and to downplay failures. From time to time Putin meets with representatives of the milblogger community and the Kremlin seems keen to make sure that these meetings don’t reveal just how much much guff has been fed to the Russian leader. 

All of which does be the question: how does Putin think the war is going? It is tempting to wonder whether censorship of all media extends to the president’s social media feeds. Or, indeed, any other information channel.