Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
Nahal Oz (Hebrew: נַחַ"ל עֹז, lit. "Mighty Stream" or "Mighty Nahal") is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northwestern part of the Negev desert close to the border with the Gaza Strip
Ok what’s Nahal mean?
Nahal (Hebrew: נח"ל) (acronym of Noar Halutzi Lohem, lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth[1]) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities... Prior to the 1990s it was a paramilitary Israel Defense Forces program that combined military service and the establishment of agricultural settlements, often in peripheral areas.
The Nahal group (Hebrew: גרעין נחל) is a form of community service developed in Israel, which combines social volunteerism, agriculture and military service. The service is divided into several parts:
The national mission period lasts a year, in which all the core group stays together, under the command of the Education and Youth Corps. During the establishment of the state, the national mission was mostly the establishment of new settlements in periphery areas (by means of Nahal settlements)
What’s a Nahal settlement?
The goal for every Nahal settlement was to become a civilian settlement and serve as a first line of defense against potential future Arab invasions while providing a base of operations and resources for military forces operating in peripheral regions.
The first Nahal settlement was Nahal Oz located in the northwestern Negev desert close to the border with the Gaza Strip.
So these settlements near to Gaza that were targeted are explicitly hybrid military-civilian installations. Militarized communes of military trained populations with the explicit purpose of being the front line of Israeli colonial expansion.
This all really paints a picture of a national israeli character, and it's not an impressive one. Where are all the brave Zionist warriors? Are they exclusively up in the sky dropping bombs now? The soldier settlements hid in their safe rooms until the IOF killed them and their captors. The IOF themselves run away from people throwing rocks in a panic. The people of Israel in general scream and cry at the sight of Hamas sugar rockets in the air while their countrymen drop 2,000lb bombs on hospitals.
The entire reputation of Israel - the warrior nation, the brave defenders of Zionism - is nothing but a PR story. I guess it's nothing new for fascism.
Nahal (Hebrew: נח"ל) (acronym of Noar Halutzi Lohem, lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth[1]) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities
What if we did Soviet-style youth organisations but for evil?
Soldier settlements
I am reminded of somebody attempting to do something similar a few decades earlier. Wehrbauern they were called. I'm sure they were very nice and civilised people.