Ukraine used an underwater drone to strike a Russian Kilo-class submarine in the port at Novorossiysk today.
In the video below you can see the submarine docked and surrounded by several other warships when the drone slips by them all and hits the sub, which is used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles.
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First Combat Use of Underwater Kamikaze Drones: Russian Kilo class Submarine Disabled in Novorossiysk
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has carried out a special operation in the port of Novorossiysk, marking the first-ever combat use of underwater kamikaze drones.
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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 9:12 AM
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⚡️BREAKING: Ukraine just made naval warfare history.
Ukraine’s Security Service hit a Russian Kilo-class submarine in Novorossiysk using Sub Sea Baby underwater drones, leaving the sub critically damaged and effectively knocked out, the SBU reports.
— UNITED24 Media (@united24media.com) December 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
The Yaroslavl oil refinery is kaput — at least for a while.
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The refinery in Yaroslavl, Russia, has suspended all operations. This comes after Ukrainian drones struck the Russian oil facility on December 12. This was reported by Reuters.
The refinery was also struck in October 2025, when a gas processing unit was severely damaged.
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— (((Tendar))) (@tendar.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Astrakhan is a Russian city at the delta where the Volga River meets the Caspian Sea.
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❗️On the night of December 15, the Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully struck a strategic enemy facility – the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant, according to the General Staff of Ukraine.
The Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant is one of the key enterprises in the Russian oil and gas industry.
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— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Ukraine continues to pound Russia’s offshore oil operations in the Caspian Sea.
A Russian soldier is shocked — SHOCKED!!! — that they were thrown into a meat grinder with a “fuckload of drones” attacking them and that everyone but a lucky few were killed. Not wounded. Dead.
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"It's a total mess here.We were just being killed,thrown into a meat grinder.Our entire company is completely wiped out.In two days, those f*ckers [Ukrainians] killed everyone."
A Russian soldier from the 27th Motor Rifle Brigade described the situation near Kupiansk, Donetsk region.
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— Anton Gerashchenko (@antongerashchenko.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 10:15 AM
This is an insightful essay on the condition of the Russian regime, its army and society.
The Russian system holds together through momentum, not confidence. And nowhere is this fragility clearer than inside the military.
Russian forces are exhausted—not metaphorically, but measurably, systemically. Our monitoring of military communities over recent years reveals deep, accumulated fatigue.
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Over four years, only two events genuinely rattled Russian society and exposed the system's fragility: the 2022 mobilization and Prigozhin's mutiny.
Inside the army, soldiers openly wish for the war to end but insist they'll "fight to the end"—not from conviction but because they fear their commanders more than combat. Many believe political changes abroad, not in Moscow, will determine when they go home.
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Russia's social contract isn't breaking in a dramatic, revolutionary manner. It's disintegrating gradually from all sides: in exhausted brigades, in bankrupt regions, in families waiting for compensation that never arrives, in soldiers who would rather pay for discharge than stay.
Every contract has a breaking point. Russia's becomes possible the moment daily life becomes worse than the fear of punishment.
The mood inside the military—exhaustion, financial collapse, despair—shows movement in that direction is underway.
Russia still projects stability. But beneath the surface, the state is stretched thin, the army is running on fumes, and society is quietly realizing that the deal once struck no longer exists.
Russian video shows Shahed strikes on a bridge in Odesa.
It does seem true that we have seen a lot less of HIMARS in recent months.
The Virat, a shadow fleet tanker that was hit by Ukrainian Sea baby drones, limped its way to the Bosporous Straits at Istanbul. Huge holes in the hull above the water line are visible. The tank is empty so the holes are not below the water line, but it’s going to need extensive repairs before it can carry cargo.
The evolution of drone warfare continues.
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Russia has deployed a new Geran drone variant capable of hunting Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters
The drone combines Soviet-era weapons with modern Western electronics, including components from the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/15/s...
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— Euromaidan Press (@euromaidanpress.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 10:08 AM
A ground drone that has trouble operating on dirt is kind of like a submarine that has trouble operating in the water.
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Proof that today, the "robotic" and "unmanned" combat is very much "manned" - in this video, several Russian soldiers have to push "Courier" UGV stuck in dirt with the help of "Prometey" UGV. The TG comment notes that "Courier" UGVs have a "longstanding problems with dirt" t.me/UAVDEV/9648
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— Samuel Bendett (@sambendett.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Another 980 Russians who drew the short straw. Plus two tanks and 64 artillery systems.
Another 77 Russian officers have been confirmed dead in the last 10 days.
Let’s check in on the Russian economy.
A Ukrainian refugee and Holocaust survivor was among the victims of the terrorist attack in Australia.
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⚡️Update: Ukrainian immigrant, Holocaust survivor killed in Australia terror attack.
Alexander Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Australia from Ukraine with his wife Larisa, was one of 16 killed in a mass shooting targeting the Jewish community in Sydney on Dec. 14.
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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) December 14, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I don’t know what Zelenskyy’s calculation about this is all about, but he may have determined that NATO membership ain’t what it used to be if the United States can’t be counted on. Or he knows that Russia will never accept anything other than complete capitulation, so what difference does it make?
But it would be a mistake to accept any security guarantees from Trump.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to give up on demands for Nato membership in exchange for security guarantees from the US and Europe, in a move aimed at advancing peace talks in Berlin on Sunday. on.ft.com/4iSMzii
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— Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) December 14, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Of course they did.
Once again I find myself agreeing with John Bolton. I might need to wash my brain with Clorox.
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John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor, says Ukraine should lower the draft age and mobilize 18-year-olds to boost manpower and balance the battlefield. He also called demands for Ukrainian elections unfair, noting that Russia isn’t holding free and fair elections either.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) December 15, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Girkin continues to bemoan Russia’s inability to obliterate Ukraine.
He says that anything short of crushing the Ukrainian army and seizing the entire country is a defeat.
But then he complains that Russia hasn’t done anything to make Ukrainians love them.
7/ "This can be achieved not only by military strikes but by creating an alternative that can attract the residents of so-called Ukraine to our side. This is something that hasn't been done at all in four years.
8/ "We haven't even once attempted to create an alternative project for the people of Ukraine. Neither a government of so-called Ukraine nor a government of Novorossiya has been created. Nothing has been created to give the people of Ukraine any alternative.
9/ "Moreover, we have done a great deal to strengthen the Ukrainian state by effectively recognising its legitimacy and being willing to compromise.
10/ "If the goal of defeating this state, reuniting it with Russia, and reformatting it is clearly defined, then the strategic objective will be defined, and at least those who fight against us will understand what we actually want.
11/ "And consider whether it would be beneficial for them (themselves, their families, their loved ones, and relatives) to end the war on the terms Russia is proposing.
Russia’s military policemen are universally hated in the ranks for their corruption and harassment of soldiers for even trivial offenses. This one complains because he wants to transfer somewhere else but no one wants him.
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1/ A member of Russia's military police says that they have been ordered to impose at least 15 fines per day, or face being sent to their deaths in stormtrooper squads. Because they are so widely hated, they are sent to fight alongside convicts and 'undesirables'. ⬇️
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 2:38 AM
4/ This video from an unnamed VP officer – a very rare insight into the VP from one of its own – suggests that the harassment is being driven from the top. He says that his unit's commandant has ordered, "Fuck you, you need to do it [fine them] 15 times a day."
5/ Those who fail to do so face being forcibly transferred to stormtrooper units.He says that he himself is in the VP against his will and admits that they are regarded as "faggots" by the rest of the army:
6/ "I've been serving for a year and a half. I was in the tanks, then I left, quit before mobilisation, joined the police, worked there, quit the police, came to the enlistment centre, signed a contract, and fuck me."
7/ The VP officer says that he and his colleagues want to leave the military police but are not being released to their desired units, instead being sent exclusively to assault units, because there is so much stigma from being a military policeman:
8/ "Now I'm looking for a normal unit that will take me. Because, bro, I've been asking around, I get it, the Marines are fucked! Everyone says they don't want the stigma. I get it. So, I tried the birds [drones].
9/ "[And] I asked two Crimean units. Well, they need money there. You get it. And someone else. And I asked the infantry. They said fuck no, we're not taking you." /end
Kadyrov is almost as full of shit as Drunk Dmitri.
The Reindeer Liberation Front, led by its commander Lt. Col. Rudolph, launched an operation to free captured comrades.
For your seasonal listening pleasure.
