ISW Update

Originally Posted by ISW Wizards
Key Takeaways

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to discuss negotiations with Ukraine as a means of separating Ukraine from its Western supporters by portraying Kyiv as unwilling to compromise or even to talk seriously.

Putin’s positioning in the Russian information space continues to oscillate between supporting the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and backing the nationalist and pro-war milblogger community.

An independent open-source investigation by the BBC’s Russia service and independent Russia outlet Mediazona found that members of Russian national republics deploy to Ukraine at disproportionately higher rates than ethnically Russian oblasts, but that ethnic Russians are dying at a rate proportional to their representation in the Russian Federation population, contrary to previous ISW assessments.

Russian officials strengthened existing legislation to stifle domestic dissent.

Senior US officials stated that Russia is providing an unprecedented level of military and technical support to Iran in exchange for Iranian-made weapons systems.

Russian forces established defensive lines near Svatove, and Russian and Ukrainian forces conducted ground attacks near Kreminna.

Russian forces continued ground attacks near Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

Russian forces may have established positions on an island west of Kherson City in the Dnipro River.

Ukrainian forces’ interdiction campaign against Russian military assets and logistics hubs in southern Ukraine has likely degraded Russian forces, their logistics lines, and broader Russian morale.

Putin doubled down on claims that Russia will not conduct a second wave of mobilization amidst persistent concerns within Russian society.
Russian occupation authorities continued to strengthen physical, legal, and social control over occupied territories.

John Burns

I have all the sources.
They can't stop the signal.