Car Bomb Kills Russian Ammo, MIssile Supply Commander Near Moscow

A car bomb detonating near Moscow killed the Russian officer in charge of the military's artillery and missile ammunition supplies.

Given the importance to Russia of its missile, drone and artillery ammunition, his assassination has a significant symbolic and well as practical impact. He was the latest in a string of senior Russian officials killed by bombs in or near Moscow. JL

Pjotr Sauer reports in The Guardian:

An explosive device planted underneath a BMW detonated at about 5.30am on Tuesday as Col Damir Davydov was driving near his home in the city of Balashikha. Davydov headed the Russian military’s artillery and missile ammunition supply directorate, a key logistics role responsible for overseeing the distribution of weapons to the armed forces. Security camera footage show Davydov’s vehicle erupting in flames and rolling into a parked car. He was still alive after being pulled from the vehicle but he died from his injuries shortly afterwards. It was the latest in a string of assassinations targeting Russian military officials and prominent pro-war figures since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia Forced To Ration Ammo As Ukraine Strikes Degrade Supplies

In its latest strike on Russian ammunition storage depots, Ukraine's drones blew up an arsenal outside Belgorod in Russia near the Ukrainian border, resulting in the explosion captured in the photo at left.

The strategic impact of Ukraine's relentless targeting of these depots is that Russian units have been forced to ration the amount of ammunition they use, curtailing the impact on Ukrainian operations. JL

Bohuslav Romanenko reports in New Voice of Ukraine:

Ukrainian  strikes on Russian logistics routes and ammunition depots have forced the Russians to impose limits on artillery ammunition use. "Some Russian units, including the 36th Army command have introduced limits on the use of artillery ammunition. Earlier, on a specific section of the front, the enemy concentrated fire and kept firing until it destroyed the entire position; now such cases have decreased.” Because of the shortage of artillery ammunition, Russian forces are also reducing the use of weapons systems positioned closer to the line of combat.

Russia's Retreat From Kinburn Spit Enables Direct Ukraine Threat To Crimea

The noose appears to be tightening. Yesterday, the Chonhar Bridge from the mainland to Crimea was reported destroyed, a day after it had been severely damaged and rendered unusable. 

As Ukrainian mid and long range drones make the routes through occupied southern Ukraine toward Crimea  increasingly untenable, if not suicidal  for Russian truckers, other Ukrainian advances are threatening Crimea from the northwest. Russian troops deployed on the Kinburn spit, which lies at the mouth of the Dnipro as it enters the Black Sea, are withdrawing (as best they can) because Ukraine's drone blockade had prevented their resupply and reinforcement. This means that Ukraine can flank the Russians still occupying the parts of Kherson oblast between the Dnipro and Crimea. The Kremlin will either have to take some of its scarce troop strength to defend that shoreline - or pull back further - which means the routes to Crimea will be exposed and vulnerable. JL

The Kyiv Post reports:

Russian units of the 337th Regiment are withdrawing from parts of the Kinburn Spit in southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region after Ukrainian strikes disrupted supply routes to the area. Deliveries of food, fuel and ammunition to Russian positions on the spit have effectively ceased. (This matters) because the spit could pave the way for the liberation of Crimea. It is “an important strategic point” as “the Kinburn Spit controls the Dnipro River’s outlet into the Black Sea and is used for shelling southern parts of the Mykolaiv region. For Russia, this point is important to prevent the landing of troops from our side.” Attacks on Russian logistics supplying Crimea have intensified in recent weeks

Corporate CFOs Struggle To Track AI Costs As Token Expense Accelerates

As if the exponential rise in AI token use - and related expenses - were not  troublesome enough for putative corporate customers, the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) of those organizations are finding that just tracking  usage is difficult. An underwhelming 26% admit to having a 'comprehensive' view of their AI costs. Some are probably asking AI to estimate it for them. 

And in a related challenge, determining whether - and how - those investments generate returns for the customers - and, in turn, for their customers - is equally hard. At some point, as systems for monitoring and measuring catch up with the technology, there will be greater clarity. In the meantime, which is to say, in time for the next quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts, there will be a lot of optimistic hemming, hawing and corporate finance doublespeak. JL

Kristin Broughton and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

The shift to pricing based on usage, as measured by AI tokens, is creating new challenges for even experienced finance teams. CFOs used to paying flat amounts for technology are finding costs more unpredictable and harder to model as they build agents and embark on ambitious AI investments. 26% of companies have a comprehensive view of their AI costs, 50% have some visibility and 22% report no visibility. Charging per token helps AI firms manage the risk that customers could cut their subscriptions, but usage-based pricing shifts risk to customers, forcing them to track consumption. Many CFOs “are going to see their Anthropic bill and freak out this quarter. I don’t want everyone using tokens and setting up AI agents or AI processes that don’t have long-term scalable benefits.”

Russians Pull 381 Billion Rubles From Banks As Cars Deliver Fuel To Front

In related signs of the Kremlin's economic and military desperation, 

the Russian central bank has begun limiting the amount of cash that Russians can withdraw from ATMs after a 30 year record 381.2 billion rubles were taken out by citizens in May.

At the same time, the Russian government has begun using civilians driving their own cars to deliver fuel to the frontlines in an attempt to avoid increasingly accurate and devastating Ukrainian drone strikes on trucks behind the fighting front. JL

UA News reports and Sania Kozatskyi reports in Militarnyi:

In May, the Russian banking system faced a massive outflow of cash - 381.2 billion rubles (approximately $5.2 billion) - the highest figure in the past three decades. Russians are increasingly choosing “cash” due to uncertainty—both geopolitical and macroeconomic. People want to have money on hand for expenses. The Russian central bank tightened controls on cash withdrawals via ATMs starting June 1. From now on, banks will monitor monthly cash withdrawal limits. Russia has started using civilian vehicles to transport fuel to its military units in occupied Ukraine. The move is an attempt to conceal military logistics from Ukrainian drone strikes, which have increasingly targeted Russian supply routes and fuel shipments far behind the front lines. 

Ukraine's 3rd Corps Ran 18,000 Ground Robot Missions, Inc 600 Wounded Evacs

In its first full year of ground robot deployment at operational scale, Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps conducted 18,000 missions, including the evacuation of 600 wounded soldiers. 

The significance of this achievement lies in both the corps' ability to manage the complexities of this new type of maneuver across the breadth of its areas of responsibility, but also in demonstrating that ground robots have now become an essential, integrated element of a fighting unit's success. JL

Roman Kohanets reports in United 24:

Ukraine's Third Army Corps carried out more than 18,000 ground-robot missions over its first year of operations, evacuating more than 600 wounded soldiers and transporting 4,500 tons of cargo. Officers attributed the throughput to streamlined paperwork and a mission-command model that lets junior commanders decide how to execute orders while senior officers set the intent. A dedicated "Battle Captain" software runs each engagement directly and coordinates between units without clarifying decisions up the chain of command.

Why A Sudden Russian Army Collapse Is No Longer Out of the Question

Soldiers of the Russian army have endured more misery than any other fighting force in recent memory: massive losses, corrupt, cruel and incompetent officers, inadequate supplies, indifferent medical care and now, after four bloody years with little to show for that sacrifice, the surging success of their Ukrainian enemies. 

Students of history will recall that the Russian Revolution was sparked by the mutiny of the Tsar's field armies on the Eastern Front in WWI - as well as the rebellion of  Baltic Fleet sailors at Kronstadt naval base outside St Petersburg (which was bombed last week by Ukrainian drones). That this generation of Russian soldiers and sailors have endured their privations for so long, given the horrific scale of their casualties and paucity of success, is a matter of surprise to observers from more civilized societies. But now, as the following article reveals, all of the elements that have historically led to military mutinies are present for Russian troops in Ukraine. The most soul-destroying may be the Ukrainians' offensive successes, both at the front and striking the Russians' rear areas, including cities once considered untouchable. In addition to the lack of any hope of success for their own efforts, the troops must now confront the fact that, in many areas and perhaps overall, they are losing. There are no rumors or stories about mutinies to date, but that final blow to morale, on top of leadership's refusal to admit any problems, may be the last straw. JL

Brynn Tannehill reports in The Bulwark:

Hemingway famously observed that one goes bankrupt “gradually and then suddenly.” The same can be said of armies. The biggest army does not automatically win. Armies fall apart in months due to a combination of poor leadership, lack of logistic support, exhaustion, corrupt regimes, failed offensives, and broken morale. Many of the conditions for Russian army collapse have been in place for a long time: corruption is endemic, commanders extort money from their troops, soldiers are punished with violence, tactics have resulted in high losses with minimal gains, all with predictable effects on combat effectiveness. (And) the most important condition - logistics - is now trending in the wrong direction. There is no hope of breakthrough. The spring offensive of 2026 has failed. (But) the best guarantor of poor Russian leadership is Putin's (good) health.