MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images
- Some pro-Russian bloggers are criticizing the Russian military's mistakes.
- Ukrainian counter-offenses have been retaking parts of the country from Russian forces.
- "It's time to punish the commanders who allowed these kinds of things," said Maksim Fomin, a blogger.
Some pro-Russian bloggers are angry about their military's mistakes as the country retreats due to Ukrainian counter-attacks, according to a report from The New York Times.
In his nightly news address on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had liberated 700 square miles, including the city of Izium, since launching a counter-offensive earlier this month.
Insider is unable to verify the figures, and Ukraine has not allowed media on its front lines since the counteroffensive began.
The Kremlin's justification was that the decision to retreat was "to regroup" its troops, according to NYT.
Maksim Fomin, a pro-Russian blogger from eastern Ukraine, posted a video on the social network Telegram saying, "It's time to punish the commanders who allowed these kinds of things," referring to the failed response of the Russian army.
While his military struggled to hold its position, NYT reported President Vladimir Putin was at the grand opening of a Ferris wheel at a park in Moscow to commemorate the city's founding.
"You're throwing a billion-ruble party," said another pro-Russian blogger on Telegram who NYT didn't name: "What is wrong with you? Not at the time of such a horrible failure."
Criticisms have become louder over the last few months. In May, the Russian military attempted to cross the Siversky Donets River and lost dozens of armored vehicles, while more than 400 Russian soldiers were estimated to have been killed or wounded during the battle.
Following that event, Insider's Abbie Shull reported that Yuri Podolyaka, a war blogger with 2.1 million followers on Telegram, said in a video that he had been avoiding criticizing the Russian military but after the failure of the Siversky Donets river crossing, his patience was "overwhelmed."
"I emphasize, because of the stupidity of the Russian command — at least one battalion tactical group was burned, possibly two," Podolyaka said.
The response from pro-war bloggers follows calls from Russian lawmakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow to remove President Putin from power over the war in Ukraine.
As the war has dragged on, Russian military failures have become well-documented: One Russian paratrooper even wrote about his experiences, recalling clueless commanders, desperately searching for food, and comrades purposely shooting themselves in their legs to get sent home and receive a $ 50,000 payout from the government.
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