Russian MilBloggers Not as Upbeat as Putin on a War vs NATO

Russian military bloggers, vehemently supportive of Kremlin military might and just as dismissive of European fighting prowess, have questioned recent comments by President Vladimir Putin that his country doesn’t want to go to war with NATO but that if it has to, Moscow’s troops and weapons are ready to win that fight.Russia’s failure to defeat Ukraine after nearly five years of a war that was supposed to last only a week is evidence that the Russian military machine is not nearly as capable as the Kremlin wants people to believe, and battlefield realities exposing real gaps in Russian army fighting capacity aren’t going to change any time soon, Z-bloggers/hard core supporters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine said in comments following Putin’s claims.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, a former FSB officer sentenced in 2024 to four years in prison on extremism charges after calling the Putin regime “incompetent” among other criticisms, said Russia’s national leader was “imagining things” if he seriously thought his armed forces could stand up to NATO’s.“I don’t know why Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] decided that we are ready for war with the whole of Europe, if we even, excuse the expression, cannot defeat so-called Ukraine in five years. If our cities are being attacked and bombed by the enemy for the fifth year of the war, and under serious attacks, serious bombings, civilians die in large numbers, our large and strategically important industrial enterprises are burned and destroyed – why did Vladimir Vladimirovich decide that we are ready for war with all of Europe? I honestly don’t know. Most likely, this is just a rhetorical phrase to reassure himself,” Girkin wrote in a prison cell letter published on Monday. Other Topics of Interest Zelensky: Musk in Contact With Putin Since War’s Start Zelensky said Musk communicated with both him and Putin at the start of the invasion but did not say when or what they discussed. Putin, speaking to reporters in Moscow on Oct. 29, said Russia’s defenses are strong and fully capable of taking on NATO right now.“Many [in Europe] are talking about preparing for a war by 2030. Is it right or wrong? First of all, we are prepared. But we want no war with Europe. If any of them want it, let them prepare. But they have not reached their goal of inflicting strategic defeat on Russia, and it is unlikely this will be possible by 2030 either,” Putin said in part.The Russian leader went on to express confidence that Russia’s armed forces would achieve their assigned objectives in Ukraine.Aleksandr Khodakovsky, a former Ukrainian special forces commander who defected to fight on the Kremlin’s side during Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, said Moscow faces a hostile Europe fully committed to opposing Russia and supporting Ukraine, and that the Kremlin needs peace soon, and not sometime in the distant future, because Russian military power has clear limits.“What should worry us most is not how the West assesses our ability to resist it, but a real assessment of our own potential and our own capabilities. To fight or to make peace is up to us to decide, and we must decide based on our own understanding of the consequences of war or peace,” Khodakovsky wrote in a Sunday Telegram-published analysis of Russia’s war-fighting ability. “The war must be stopped, because it is obvious that the expectations of the war [quick defeat of Ukraine] gave way to the consequences [powerful European opposition] that the war inevitably generates.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the country’s military on Sunday that October 2026 saw the highest numbers of Russian casualties for the entire war, and that in that month, like the September preceding it, invading Russian forces lost more territory than they gained.Ukraine’s armed forces probably did liberate more territory than they lost over the past 60 days, but gains were small compared to the total area of Ukraine occupied by Russia, most analysts say. Extremely heavy losses among Russian forces attacking in the eastern Donetsk sector since September are well documented by combat units on both sides of the fighting.The pro-war but Kremlin-critical milblogger channel Ofitser na Peredovoi (Russian: Офицер на передовой, or Officer at the Front), in an Oct. 31 post, confirmed that minor Russian advances at the price of at-times crushing losses are common in most sectors of the front, and repeated a frequent Russian army complaint that the bloody attacks continue because Russian mid-level officers in Ukraine ignore actual combat conditions and serious casualties in order to report victories to Putin and the Kremlin.“Heavy fighting continues at the front. Reports of advances by a few hundred meters or the repelling of counterattacks do not, in themselves, signify a real shift in the situation. What matters are confirmed outcomes: the ability to hold ground, the effective resupply of units, and the genuine security of the rear. Official briefings may cite kilometers gained or the number of targets intercepted, but the ultimate cost of these events is measured in human lives,” a daily sitrep said.Meanwhile, Ukrainian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) strikes continued deep inside Russia, setting a major oil refinery in the Samara region ablaze and penetrating Russian airspace hundreds of kilometers east of Moscow.“For the second day in a row, Ukrainian forces have carried out massive raids on Russian rear areas. Yesterday saw over 1,000 UAVs, and today, the situation is the same,” the pro-war Telegram channel Arkhangel Spetsnaza (Archangel of Spetsnaz), which has more than 1 million subscribers, said on Oct. 30. “Drones were intercepted as far away as the Kostroma region last night – a highly unusual occurrence…A key target of the attack was the Samara region – specifically the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery – where, according to Ukrainian sources [which have circulated footage from various angles], 11 separate fires have been reported.”According to an analysis of Russian milblogger views on NATO published in March by the Latvia-based investigative outlet Re:Baltika, there is general consensus among Z-bloggers that Russia and NATO are already in direct conflict and that open war is possible, but that the likely outcome of such a fight is unclear given Russia’s obvious inability to defeat much smaller Ukraine. “Confidence about the outcome is far less uniform. Some claim Russia’s army, hardened by the war in Ukraine, is ready to prevail. [But] Many others raise a more uncomfortable question: if Russia has spent years struggling to defeat Ukraine – advancing slowly against an opponent backed by only partial Western support – what would happen if it faced the full force of NATO?” the article said in part. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.