Despite Repeated Attempts, Russians Fail To Advance At Rodynske

If the Kremlin's fighting forces were actually as good as its propaganda forces, Russia might even be winning. JL

Sofiia Syngaivska reports in Defense Express:

Ukrainian forces continue to hold defensive positions within Rodynske and on its immediate approaches. Ukrainian units maintain control over all key positions in and around the settlement. This control enables the defenders to block enemy advances, monitor russian movements, and prevent the occupiers from establishing any meaningful presence inside the city. The defense is being conducted jointly by the 14th Brigade, the 20th Brigade, and the 132nd Reconnaissance Battalion of the Air Assault Forces.

In Time Since Putin's Ukraine Invasion, Russia Had Already Defeated Nazi Germany

An awkward historical comparison for Putin's Kremlin and military leadership - as well as for those ostensibly 'expert analysts and journalists' who continue to tout Russian power while denigrating Ukraine's prospects. JL

Stefan Korshak reports in the Kyiv Post:

From June 22, 1941, to May 8, 1945, with Josef Stalin at its head, the Red Army fought its way from Stalingrad to Berlin and Vienna, occupied and installed pro-Soviet governments in six Eastern European and three Baltic states and broke the back of Nazi German military resistance. The war launched by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24, 2022, to defeat and conquer the much more modest opponent, Ukraine and its Armed Forces, over the same time span has been spectacularly less successful – and for individual Russian soldiers, far more dangerous.

Russia's Energy System Failing As Repeat Ukraine Strikes Make Repair Impossible

As winter demand begins to peak, Ukraine is doubling down on its strategic drone and missile campaign against Russian energy assets. 

The point is not just to damage them, but to create a series of crises due to spare parts shortages, overwhelmed repair crews and crucial infrastructure breakdowns which then combine to generate systemic failure. JL

RFU News reports:

Russia's energy system has begun to fail as winter demand peaks, repair cycles become exhausted, and repeated damage becomes impossible to absorb across Russia's refineries, pipelines. Repair crews and spare parts are already overstretched, and any disruption to processing units now compounds faster than Russia can restore capacity. As spare parts run out and maintenance windows shrink, failures are no longer showing up as leaks or reduced efficiency, but as uncontrolled fires and full shutdowns. This shows a shift from recoverable damage to structural breakdown, where facilities begin to fail under their own accumulated stress. Repeated strikes, delayed maintenance, and the collapse of temporary fixes are turning refineries and ports into failure points

Russian Losses By End Of 2025 Totaled 1.2 Million, More Than Pre-War Army

An impressive 'accomplishment' against Ukraine, a country approximately one tenth Russia's size, with a smaller, less well armed military. 

The Kremlin really has to be uniquely incompetent to fail so utterly on such a vast scale against a weaker opponent. JL

Illia Kabachynskyi reports in United24:

In early 2022, just before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the size of the Russian armed forces was estimated at between 900,000 and slightly over 1 million active-duty troops, excluding reservists. By the end of 2025, Russia’s total military losses in Ukraine reached 1.2 million. In less than four years, the Kremlin has effectively destroyed its own army—entirely—and rebuilt it from scratch, even expanding it to a new force of 1.5 million active personnel.

Tesla Sales Drop For 2nd Year In Row, Loses Top EV Spot To China's BYD

It is difficult to recall a company's fall in product sales driven primarily by its CEO's behavior - but Tesla is living proof the reputational damage an arrogant and irresponsible leader can inflict on his own organization. JL

Becky Peterson and Joseph De Avila report in the Wall Street Journal:

Tesla, once the top seller of electric vehicles, lost first place to China’s BYD after reporting annual vehicle-delivery declines for the second year in a row. Tesla sales were down 9% for all of 2025 and dropped 16% for the fourth quarter compared with a year prior. CEO Elon Musk had a controversial role in the White House overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. That caused backlash at some Tesla showrooms across the U.S. and pullback in sales. 

Ukraine HIMARS Strike Destroys 30 Russian Vehicles Attempting Attack On Pokrovsk

And so for the Russian military, the new year began as the old one ended: with a failed assault resulting in massive Russian casualties. 

Happy New Year, comrades. JL

New Voice of Ukraine reports:

More than 30 units of Russian military equipment were destroyed during the enemy’s attempt to seize the Ukrainian village of Hryshyne in Donetsk Oblast’s Pokrovsk front. Russia’s 76th Airborne Assault Division attempted to use the logistics route between Shevchenkove and Pokrovsk to transport additional troops and supplies to the area. The remaining vehicles were later detected and eliminated on the southeastern outskirts of Pokrovsk as Russian troops attempted to take cover.

Russia Mistakenly Posts Evidence Revealing How It Abuses Its Own Troops

The Russian army has been notoriously brutal at least since WWII in the Stalin era, but the antecedents of its savagery towards its own soldiers go back to the Russian Civil War of the 1920s and, arguably, to the Tsars. 

Now, through the mistaken release of official complaints filed by soldiers and their families, the abuses of the military towards troops fighting currently in Ukraine have been detailed. Demands for bribes to avoid dangerous missions have been well documented previously, but the routine abuse of Russian soldiers is now in full view. That more have not revolted or killed their officers remains a cause of wonder to modern western militaries. And the scale and inhumanity of these abuses suggests why  Kremlin officials fear what will happen inside Russia when the war ends. The picture at right is of a Russian soldier ordered to attack Ukrainian positions despite being on crutches. JL

Paul Sonne and colleagues report in the New York Times:

Underpinning the Russian war machine is a pattern of brutality and coercion in which commanders dole out abuse as punishment while exploiting soldiers — even the gravely ill or injured — to keep them on the battlefield. Soldiers are sent to the front despite debilitating medical conditions like broken limbs, Stage 4 cancer, epilepsy, severely damaged vision and hearing, head trauma, schizophrenia and stroke complications. Released prisoners of war are deployed directly back to active combat. Commanders extort or steal from their soldiers, including collecting money to exempt troops from deadly missions. Russian commanders threaten their own soldiers with death so often that the killings have their own name — “zeroing out.”