Ukraine war update: Russia tries to clamp down on bad news from frontlines

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top proxy in Crimea wants to stiffen criminal penalties against people who publish bad news from the front lines, calling them “willing or unwitting accomplices” of Ukraine's forces.

“I urge everyone to show responsibility and remember the consequences of rash acts that undermine security, harm our Armed Forces and help the enemy in military operations, in carrying out terrorist attacks on Russian territories, in the information war,” Putin appointee Sergey Aksyonov, who heads the occupation administration in Crimea, wrote on social media on Monday.

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Aksyonov announced an intent to propose federal legislation “toughening responsibility” for social media posts and other discussion of military developments, including “the results of the terrorist attacks,” as Russian authorities prefer to describe Ukrainian strikes on key supply routes such as the Kerch Bridge. That initiative dovetails with reports that Russian authorities are targeting the community of “military bloggers” who have risen to prominence in the Russian information system for their relatively candid assessments of the war.

“When you see that another military blogger has been attacked with a network of unknown channels with 1,000-5,000 subscribers each, know that this is an order from the [Russian Ministry of Defense],” Russian military blogger Roman Saponkov wrote on Monday in a post translated by the WarTranslated project. “Most likely, the blogger wrote something that has a bad effect on his office career in the rear.”

The tension surfaced after a difficult weekend in the physical and “information” war in Ukraine. A purported video of a Russian officer who reportedly went missing in action surfaced on Sunday, with the officer in Ukrainian custody and calling for his fellow soldiers “to stop this pointless bloody war on Ukrainian territory.” Ukrainian forces made another attempt to bombard the Kerch Strait Bridge linking the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to the Russian mainland. Ukrainian defense officials also claimed “certain successes” in the fight for Urozhaine, with some pro-Russian voices going so far as to write that Russian forces have surrendered the Donbas town.

“ISW has not observed confirmation that Russian forces have completely withdrawn from Urozhaine and Russian forces likely currently maintain positions in at least the southern part of the settlement,” a team of analysts at the Institute for the Study of War cautioned on Sunday afternoon.

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Putin has maintained a fraught relationship with the military bloggers, who cut an unusual figure in Russian media as right-wing supporters of the war whose disappointment and frustration at military setbacks produces sometimes-sharp criticism of Russian authorities. Putin hosted a group of war correspondents at the Kremlin in June, but Russian officials also arrested one of the most prominent commentators, Igor Girkin, after he referred to Putin as a “lowlife” in June.

“Crimea will initiate at the federal level ... legislation in terms of toughening responsibility for the dissemination ... of photos and videos of the location and operation of military and strategic facilities, air defense and other defense systems, and also the results of the terrorist attacks committed by the Kiev regime,” Aksyonov said. “I believe that those who do this are willing or unwitting accomplices of the enemy, regardless of their motives — whether it is the desire to 'hype,' stupidity or malicious intent.”