Unease among Z-bloggers over the war in Ukraine

Kiev’s increasingly intense attacks, even on Moscow and St Petersburg, are leading the propagandists of the Russian invasion to accuse their own leadership ever more openly of failing to understand the situation on the front line. And former General Popov, who was removed from his post in 2023 after criticising Gerasimov, is now being portrayed as a ‘victim of the truth’.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – An end to the Russian war in Ukraine still seems a long way off, and Russia is facing increasingly intense attacks from the Ukrainians, who are laying waste to Moscow and St Petersburg, giving the impression that they are gaining the upper hand over the aggressor.

The Russians are reacting furiously by bombing Kyiv – even targeting churches and museums – and are proclaiming the imminent capture of Konstantinovka, one of the Ukrainian strongholds in the Donbas; but as has been the case for the past four and a half years, this is propaganda that is becoming increasingly unreliable and implausible.

It is precisely the propagandists of the Russian war effort – the Z-bloggers and many warmongering commentators – who are beginning to show increasing nervousness and concern. Pavel Gubarev, former leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass, openly accuses the Russian leadership of failing to understand the situation at the front, or even of lying shamelessly: “President Putin’s report at the St Petersburg Forum stated that the Russian army is advancing along the entire front line in the Northern Military District, whilst my sources at the front unanimously report that no offensive has been underway for some time; on the contrary, many sectors of the front are in retreat.”

According to Gubarev, this misperception of the actual war situation is caused by “a pervasive system of lies that has bound the entire officer corps in a mutual cover-up, whereby truthful information is not passed on as a matter of course and, should a courageous individual emerge, their fate is swiftly and inexorably sealed according to General Popov’s pattern”.

The reference is to Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th Army operating in the Zaporizhzhia sector, who in 2023 clashed with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov by speaking out during a high-level meeting about the dire situation in the units under his command and the insufficient rotation of frontline units.

Popov was labelled a panic-monger, removed from his post, subsequently charged with abuse of power and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. A significant section of the ‘Zeta community’ regards Popov as ‘a victim of the truth’.

In many cases, Z-bloggers border on hysteria, whilst maintaining a high degree of pro-war patriotism and exposing the machinations of the enemy – namely Ukraine and its Western allies. Anastasia Kaševarova claims that “the enemy is begging other countries to supply it with weapons; it is ready to grovel on its knees just to receive weapons to kill Russians… they’re stealing billions from us; the enemy doesn’t mind spending 15 drones for every one of our soldiers, whilst we already have enough to last the long haul, and God forbid one breaks or goes missing – you’ll have to pay for it; they’re fighting us and we’re just sitting idly by”.

Aleksey Chadaev states that “when future historians begin to analyse what happened between mid-2025 – when the tide of the drone war was turning in our favour – and mid-2026, when the situation changed, it will become clear that our commanders did indeed spring into action: they found contractors, allocated budgets and began mentally dividing up the rewards for future victories”, whilst the new wave of technology brought with it new challenges, to which they were unable to respond.

Aleksandr Khodakovskij believes that “our main problem is the lack of a systematic organisation, the ingrained habit of shirking responsibility in contentious situations, rendering us incapable of making progress in areas where medals are at stake, and where it is difficult to find independent and capable candidates in fields where the benefits are not immediately apparent, but which involve a great deal of work and responsibility”.

The popular blogger TopaZ concludes that “it is clear that, in the Kremlin’s view, the whole situation appears as though evil Western fascists have taken their Ukrainian brothers hostage and are doing everything possible to ensure the harshest possible response to their ‘prisoners’. But we are now approaching the point where the price of ending the war will no longer be the lives of soldiers – which, in this conflict, are not counted by either side – but soon the price of weakness and indecision will be the lives of civilians.” A situation in which some commentators even go so far as to say that the only solution would be “a nuclear attack on Ukraine”.