Russian Military Bloggers largely praised Russia's execution of Ukrainian POWs, reinforcing the cultural norm of justifying and glorifying war crimes in the wider Russian ultranationalist community.
This is what the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) states in its daily analysis.
Russian forces recently executed nine Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Kursk region amid an increase in Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war across the theater of operations.
ISW has recently observed an increase in the number of executions of Ukrainian POWs by Russian forces throughout the theater of operations, and Russian commanders are believed to be condoning, encouraging, or directly ordering the executions of Ukrainian POWs.
Other Russian military bloggers have called on the Russian military to increase executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war across the theater of operations.
Many of these Russian military bloggers have large followings and ties to the Kremlin, giving them a sense of authority in establishing and reinforcing accepted cultural norms within the Russian ultranationalist community.
The ``Ribar'' Telegram channel, which commemorates the execution of prisoners of war, has received awards from the Kremlin and has about 1.3 million subscribers at the time of this publication, and the founder of ``Ribar'' Mikhail Zvinchuk regularly appears on Russian state television to comment on the war in Ukraine.
Other well-known ultra-nationalist military bloggers praising and justifying the October 10 execution are: RVvoenkor with around 1.62 million Telegram subscribers, Dva Mayora with around 1.17 million subscribers, Starshe Edy with around 627,000 subscribers and Zapisky Veterana with about 357,000 subscribers at the time of publication.
Many of these subscribers are Russian servicemen and volunteers currently fighting in the war, and Russian soldiers regularly interact with these channels through correspondence and crowdfunding efforts.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian military bloggers have often praised Russian atrocities and brutality in Ukraine, and this praise highlights a broader culture that likely encourages the systematic execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Russian forces have recently resumed tactical offensive attacks in the border area of Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions and have achieved tactical successes in local attacks, but so far this activity does not appear to be part of a larger operational offensive effort in support of the broader Russian offensive operation in the western part of the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian forces recently recovered lost positions near Selidovo, and Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, the city of Donetsk and Velika Novosilka.