The Russian assault on Ukraine grinded into its second week on Wednesday, with Putin’s forces stepping up their artillery attacks on innocent civilians amid major setbacks suffered by infantry. Russian state news media outlet Sputnik made a surprising report in its coverage of the attacks, with the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledging the deaths of 498 soldiers since he beginning of the operation – a toll believed to be considerably higher at 2,000 by US estimates, but that they’re mentioning any deaths occurred at all is surprising. The article includes the bullshit line that the “declared goals of the operation are the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as defence of the Donbass republics,” so it’s obviously easy enough to blame the deaths on the “Nazi” enemy in this supposedly noble and just war. What will be less easy as time goes on is explaining how mighty Russia could lose so many of its troops to such inferior bastards.

Meanwhile Financial Times reports on a tense meeting that happened last week inside the Kremlin as Putin gathered all of his cronies to warn them they are fucked if they do basically anything other than business as usual while sanctions threaten to wipe them out. “Nobody really wants to suffer. But the message is we will have to. Being on the US sanctions list used to be a status symbol of patriotism. But now it’s a requirement. If you’re not on it, it’s suspicious,” an executive at a Russian state-owned bank told FT. Putin reportedly told his goons that any of them found to be avoiding doing business with entities facing Western sanctions would face consequences.

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