Putin's Approval Falls For 7th Straight Week To Lowest Level In 4 Years

Putin's approval rating by the state sponsored polling agency has fallen for seven weeks in a row, hitting its lowest level since before the Ukraine invasion. 

A number of causes have been cited, including inflation, war fatigue and restrictions on the internet to which all Russians are as addicted as westerners. The combination of financial strain and inconvenience is telling, but the fact that Russia is clearly not winning, nor demonstrating any ability to do so, combined with the realization that Trump is not riding to their rescue is evidently disconcerting to a growing number of Russians. That the data have been released must be assumed to have been approved by the Kremlin as a signal, perhaps that a less than satisfactory end to the war may be necessary. Or it may be a leak intended to send a message to the Kremlin that whatever his aides are telling him, things are not going well. JL

Ben Aris reports in BNE Intellinews:

Vladimir Putin's approval rating has fallen for a seventh consecutive week to its lowest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the state-owned polling agency. The proximate cause of the decline is not (just) the war, inflation or the banking sector strains - it is something more mundane and more viscerally felt by the urban middle class that has historically sustained Putin's support: the internet is broken. "The Kremlin's approval ratings are falling due to public frustration over the blocking of Telegram and restrictions on mobile internet access." (But) other factors were also at play. "Too much [negative] is happening at once, from rising prices to growing war fatigue." 

Mid-Range Ukraine Drone Attack Surge Is Depleting Russian Supplies, Combat Ability

The drone war has become sufficiently sophisticated that there are now three aspects to it, each with its own drone types. Ukraine initially focused on the first, then the third and now the second. 

In the first short range, frontline sector, the targets are troops, weapons and trenches. The next, or third, is the long range, which is now targeting economic and strategic objectives like oil refineries and defense industry manufacturing deep inside Russia, the attacks on which have played a significant role in disrupting the Russian economy. The final, and most recent, is the mid-range sector, which targets Russian supply, logistics and sector command and control. Ukrainian strikes on trucks, supply deport and local headquarters and now disrupting the spring offensive by making it harder for the Russians to amass sufficient equipment and intelligence to plan and execute attacks. JL

Euromaidan Press reports:

Ukraine is surging more explosive drones into Russia's logistical zone, weaken Russian units before they can attack. Ukraine's 12th Azov Brigade and the 20th Unmanned Systems Brigade are deploying the new SETH mid-range drone for raids in the logistical zone, which stretches from 10 km to 200 km behind the gray zone where most ground combat takes place. ""The drone war is not about the number of killed today. Ownership of depth means control of movement, logistics, [surveillance], communication and decisions in the sector, not just in the trench. We cut off the enemy's logistics, we destroy them before they reach the front line. Russia's air defense is not intact. Ukrainian drone strikes on radars, surface-to-air missile launchers and mobile guns—492 of them between June 2025 and early March—are "facilitating strikes on critical targets deep within Russian territory," 

12 Kremlin FSB Officers Killed In Ukraine Drone Strike On Donetsk HQ

A Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Kremlin's Donetsk command center for the FSB (formerly KGB) in occupied Donetsk city killed 12 FSB officers and wounded another 15.

This was a particularly noxious FSB unit, charged with "detention and physical elimination of disloyal citizens" as well as sabotage and other operations. Another systematic and strategic strike on a source of Russian oppression. JL

Cyril Barabaltchouk reports in United 24:

Ukrainian Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) special forces command post in occupied Donetsk. The operation took place at 8:01 a.m. when the Ukrainian military launched eight high-precision strikes using FP-2 drones carrying 60 to 100-kilogram warheads. The attack resulted in 27 casualties among the Russian special forces unit. The strike killed 12 Russian FSB officers and wounded another 15. The FSB’s Mobile Action Directorate is a counterintelligence unit tasked with operations in occupied territories across Ukraine, “performing counterintelligence, sabotage, military operations, agent networks, detention of disloyal citizens, physical elimination of opponents, and coordination of pro-Russian militants” 

Russia's Spring Offensive: "Zero Tactically Significant Gains," Has Now Lost Ground

Russia's Spring Summer offensive, which began March 17, has, according to geolocated analysis, not only made 'zero tactically significant gains, but has actually lost ground. 

This is counter to the claims of the Russian high command which claims to have gained 1700 square kilometers and several cities, all of which have been contradicted by independent observers. Fortunately, western media are no longer as gullible as they once were, nor are they as intimidated by the Trump administration, so are less willing to accept and publish the Russian accounts and more likely to give deserved credence to the Ukrainians. JL

Yuri Zoria reports:

Russia's Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has produced zero tactically significant gains since it launched no later than 17 March, and that Russian forces have lost ground since 1 March. Russia's Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov has claimed Russian forces had taken over 1,700 km² and 80 settlements across Ukraine since early 2026 — Luhansk Oblast among them — with a further 700 km² and 34 settlements falling in March and April alone. Heavy casualties have forced Russia to reduce its operational tempo in several sectors.  Russia's troop generation is being squeezed from both ends — recruitment falling while casualties climb — eroding the viability of its mass-assault approach

At Pokrovsk, Ukraine's Elite Brazil Volunteers' Surprise Attack Shocks Russians

Ukrainian forces continue to launch surprise counterattacks along the front to disrupt the Russians' plans, which has already caused the Kremlin to redeploy forces. 

On the Pokrovsk front, where the fighting remains among the heaviest of the war, a surprise Ukrainian counterattack led by volunteers from Brazil, whose performance has quickly underscored their elite status, shocked Russian troops at the crucial settlement of Hryshyne, decimating Russian units and pushing them back. The integration of the Brazilians into the Ukrainian force stands in contrast with the Russians use of other nationalities like the North Koreans, Africans from various countries and Nepalis, who have often been tricked or forced into the military and then slaughtered. JL

RFU News reports:

At Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian command unexpectedly deployed Brazilian volunteers to push the Russians back in an intense counterattack. To counter Russian attempts near Hryshyne, Ukraine's Brazilian volunteer soldiers were deployed to support Ukrainian forces, with the task of clearing positions and reinforcing the counteroffensive momentum. Geolocated footage captured by a drone shows how Brazilian soldiers are clearing houses inside the settlement, using explosives to blow the entrance of the buildings and sustained small arms fire to suppress Russian positions. The Brazilians operated in small groups to reduce exposure and avoid Russian drone strikes. Their skill disrupted Russian plans, leaving attacking enemy forces in shock. 

Anthropic's Multi-Billion Dollar Deal With Amazon Challenges OpenAI

Anthropic has signed a series of strategic alliances with Amazon, Google and Broadcom, which gives the AI company access to computing power while providing the other firms greater ability to use its AI. 

But the Amazon deal, which came after the other two, also begins to shape global AI alliances that will see OpenAI-Microsoft and the Chinese AI companies facing off against each other and against the Anthropic group as a potential harbinger of future competitive strength. The relative success of the various AI models will be determined by the utility of the AI as well as the financial, computing and marketing power of each. This latest alliance gives Anthropic, which was started by executives who departed OpenAI, an ability to challenge OpenAI, because of the growing success of its model.JL

Sean McClain and Kate Clark report in the Wall Street Journal:

Amazon will invest an additional $5 billion in Anthropic, part of a broadening partnership that will see the two tech companies collaborate more closely. Amazon's total investment could be as high as $25 billion. Anthropic, which has been hampered by a shortage of the computing power needed to serve its popular AI models, agreed to purchase $100 billion of Amazon’s cloud services. Anthropic said it would make use of 5 gigawatts’ worth of Amazon’s AI chips. Anthropic also expanded its partnership with Google and Broadcom, adding multiple gigawatts of capacity on their TPU chips. Recent months have seen rapid growth of the company’s coding tool Claude Code. Anthropic said this month that its revenue run-rate had reached $30 billion, far exceeding its earlier expectations for the year. 

For 2 Days In A Row, Russia Attacked Chasiv Yar (Again), And Were Beaten Back

Chasiv Yar, again? Yes, the Russians are again attacking Ukrainian positions at Chasiv Yar because it is on the way to Ukraine's fortress belt cities further west. 

But the Russians are being beaten back - as they have been elsewhere along the front - by a combination of Ukraine's drones, artillery and infantry. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Two days in a row, the Russian 70th Motor Rifle Division attacked Ukrainian positions at Chasiv Yar. Two days in a row, the Ukrainian 24th Mechanized Brigade fought back with drones, artillery and infantry. Ukrainian defenders destroyed enemy armored vehicles, transport, and troops even at the approaches to the positions. A similar breakthrough attempt was made by the Russians on April 18. They involved five armored combat vehicles, a tank, as well as motorcycles and ATVs for rapid advancement. However, thanks to the coordinated work of intelligence, drones, artillery, and infantry, the attack was thwarted. The Russians are trying to act in waves, combining equipment and light mobile groups, but is suffering huge losses.