Putin’s Worst Nightmare: Soldiers Refuse Orders, Army Revolt Erupts!

The greatest threat to Vladimir Putin may no longer be Ukraine or the West. It may be his own military. Russian commanders who once pledged loyalty to the Kremlin are now breaking ranks exposing corruption torture and catastrophic battlefield failures. In a viral message viewed by tens of millions, they delivered a stunning ultimatum stop. The lies stop the suicide orders or the army will march on Moscow and turn their guns on the Kremlin. Could Russia be heading toward the most dangerous military revolt since the Wagner mutiny? Meanwhile, the Middle East is on the brink of a major confrontation. Iran has rejected the U.S. ultimatum closed the Strait of Hormuz, on its own terms threatened global retaliation, and named President Trump, Netanyahu and European leaders as assassination targets. The United States has answered with 1,000 missiles locked on Iran crushing sanctions and plans to break Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Together, these developments raise a terrifying question. Is the world now moving toward simultaneous military upheaval in Russia and a full-scale war in the Middle East? Russian commanders revolt against Putin truth or army turns weapons. On the Kremlin, corruption and dictatorial orders spark army revolt. A mutiny is building inside the Russian military aimed directly at President Vladimir Putin. Commanders who fought for him until recently are now recording videos and telling him they are done dying on suicide missions. They demand he stop the war or they will turn their guns around and march on Moscow. This is not idle talk. Former Russian officer Alexander Lunin released a video that has racked up more than 10 million views on Instagram alone, with reposts pushing total reach toward 50 million. Lunin, who until last year commanded a volunteer battalion in Ukraine and still commands respect among his men, delivered the message after senior defense and security officials approached him in person. They asked him to serve as the public face because they could not speak out themselves. In the video, Lunin says high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Defense and Security Agencies met with him and passed on a direct warning to Putin. If he does not grant me an audience on live television, where I will tell the whole truth about what is happening in our country right now, the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin. He describes dozens, hundreds, even thousands of soldiers locked in dungeons, tortured by their own commanders, stripped of financial assets, and declared missing after refusing stupid suicidal orders. He ends with a blunt threat, invite him to the Kremlin for a live address, or face serious consequences. The language echoes the rhetoric used by Yevgeny Prigozhin before his short-lived march on Moscow in 2023. Prigozhin made similar accusations of corruption and incompetence at the top before leading armed columns toward the capital. Two months later, he was dead. Lunin's video carries extra weight because he is not a random critic, but a decorated veteran with men who served under him and according to his later statements, still respect him. Reports indicate that defense officials sought him out precisely because he sits outside the official chain of command, yet retains credibility with frontline troops. A leaked assessment that circulated roughly two weeks before Lunin's video described exactly this kind of fracture. It reported that the general staff headed by Valery Gerasimov was nearing open revolt over the diversion of fuel from frontline units to Moscow. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries had created shortages and long lines at gas stations in the capital, prompting the Kremlin to prioritize supplies for the city to maintain an appearance of normality. Frontline commanders told Gerasimov that without adequate diesel for armored vehicles, ammunition transport and equipment recovery serious offensive operations were no longer possible. Any renewed assaults would fall even more heavily on infantry driving casualties higher still. The assessment concluded that tensions between the political leadership and the general staff were growing and becoming harder to contain. What was dismissed by some at the time as wishful thinking has now broken into public view. The Kremlin's initial public response was measured. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the leadership had not yet fully reviewed the appeal and noted some rather strange formulations, adding that it would be examined. Behind the scenes, the reaction was swifter. Lunin was detained, his home searched, and he was later sentenced by a court in Voronezh on charges related to displaying extremist symbols. Within days, he released a follow-up video in which he insisted that he was not rebelling against the country or seeking to cause unrest, but simply wanted the army treated better and was raising the issue directly with the commander-in-chief. The shift in tone suggested strong pressure had been applied. Support for Lunin's original message has nevertheless continued to surface. Clips have circulated of other Russian soldiers and even entire units publicly backing his appeal and stating they are prepared to turn their weapons against those harming their own men. At the same time, the Kremlin's reliance on forced mobilization is generating fresh domestic friction. In parts of Russia, police have been detaining men and pressuring them to sign contracts. Videos show wives and mothers attempting to block buses carrying the newly mobilized toward military facilities. These internal strains come as Russia also faces external pressure. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently stated that Moscow remains ready to resume negotiations from the exact point where they stopped and claimed that parameters for a political settlement had been largely discussed and agreed upon during meetings in Alaska almost a year earlier. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who participated in those discussions, directly contradicted that account. There was no agreement in Alaska. There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement in Alaska. If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war. Frontline footage analyzed by Czech FAR, a military analyst and former Navy SEAL, underscores why sustaining the current pace of operations is becoming increasingly difficult for Russian forces. In one clip, Russian troops appear to celebrate the destruction of what they believe is a Ukrainian tank only to realize it is one of their own. Ukrainian forces routinely follow mobility kills on Russian armor with repeated strikes to ensure the vehicle cannot be recovered or repaired. Russian tank designs with their ammunition carousel located inside the crew compartment remain vulnerable to catastrophic explosions that send turrets flying. Western tanks, such as the M1 Abrams, can often be immobilized but are far harder to destroy outright. FAR noted that first-person view drones, which barely existed as tank killers 1,000 days ago, have fundamentally altered ground warfare. Armor is not obsolete, but any vehicle that cannot counter the drone threat faces severe disadvantages on today's battlefield. Lunin's Public Intervention The swift official response, the continuing expressions of support from within the ranks and the documented logistics strains together, paint a picture of a military under real pressure. Whether this represents the beginning of a deeper fracture or another episode that the Kremlin can contain remains to be seen, but the grievances over how the war is being fought and how soldiers are being treated have now been aired at the highest levels and cannot be easily erased. Russia attacks Ukraine, again with cluster bombs, as Ukrainian drones inflict mounting losses on Russian military and oil industry. Last weekend, Russian forces once again attacked multiple Ukrainian cities. Kyiv authorities accused Russian forces of using highly lethal cluster munitions in the assault. Kovtunov, the head of Kyiv's Darnitsky district, revealed that the Russian missiles were equipped with shrapnel, causing extensive damage to numerous cars and residential buildings. Fortunately, the area was almost completely empty at the moment of impact, and no one was standing near windows, which effectively prevented larger-scale civilian casualties. This type of missile, fitted with shrapnel, is known in military terms as a rapid warhead or cluster bomb. Inside the warhead are typically tens of thousands of tiny steel balls or prefabricated fragments. Once detonated, thousands of high-speed fragments can easily penetrate car bodies and shatter windows in apartment buildings. Even civilians sheltering indoors face a high risk of injury or death from flying debris if they are near windows. Kyiv authorities have now set up assistance centers at the scene, where affected residents are receiving necessary aid. Municipal workers are also rushing to repair windows and clear debris. This marks the third targeted Russian strike on Kyiv within a single week, resulting in a total of 11 injuries across the city. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Russia-Ukraine war has now entered its fifth year. Russian forces had long counted on wearing Ukraine down through a war of attrition. Yet recent Ukrainian drone counterattacks are inflicting increasingly severe losses on Russia's military and petroleum industry. Moscow is discovering that the strategy of simply dragging the conflict out may no longer work in its favor. In addition, Putin had previously claimed certain battlefield advances that in reality did not exist. This has led many Western analysts to suspect that his generals misled him about the true situation on the ground, even causing him to believe blindly that Russian troops could still secure victory despite fractures in the front lines. By contrast, a growing sense of confidence is spreading within multiple branches of the Ukrainian government and military that Ukraine will ultimately endure the war and defend its independence. The report notes that the conflict has now reached a critical turning point, though its direction remains unclear. For the first time since the war began, Russia finds itself at a disadvantage and has yet to devise an effective response to Ukraine's drone superiority. Ukraine's most fatal weakness at present is its shortage of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles, a problem Ukraine cannot solve on its own. Reuters reported on July 11th that two Russian glide bombs struck a densely populated area of Ukraine's border city of Sumy, killing five people and injuring 30. A video circulating online shows a mother desperately throwing herself over her child to shield her during the attack. Because Sumy is a frontline city, Ukrainian forces had almost no time to warn civilians Russia's guided bombs can reach the city in just a few seconds. Iran launches largest-scale attack in months on Gulf states, including Oman as U.S. completes third round of strikes on 140 targets. A new round of U.S.-Iran conflict has now entered its seventh day. Iran has just carried out its largest attack in months, launching multiple waves of ballistic missiles and drones that struck Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and, for the first time, also targeted Oman. The U.S. military has announced the completion of its third round of strikes on 140 targets inside Iran. U.S. War Minister Hegseth stated that Iran made the wrong choice and must now pay the price for it. On the Iranian side, Speaker Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Aregchi almost simultaneously changed their tone. Ghalibaf posted on X claiming that the era of unilateral deals is over. In his post, he specifically quoted of the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and used blue highlighting to emphasize the phrase Iran will make arrangements underscoring Iran's claimed management rights over the strait. However, the full text of the article states that Iran will arrange for commercial ships to pass safely and free of charge through the Strait of Hormuz within 60 days and clear mines within 30 days. The agreement nowhere grants Iran the authority to arrange ship navigation in the waterway. Iranian Foreign Minister Aregchi when asked on July 11 whether the U.S. would be allowed to inspect Iranian nuclear facilities suddenly added a condition of course provided that Iran could also send a team to Israel to verify whether it possesses nuclear weapons. If Israel has them then Iran should have them too. Trump has repeatedly stressed that Iran will never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. This remains the U.S. bottom line. On the evening of July 12 the Revolutionary Guard openly attacked a cargo ship flying the Cypriot flag. The U.S. military immediately announced the launch of its third round of strikes on Iran using land and sea-based fighter jets drones and naval vessels. U.S. forces launched precision-guided weapons against approximately 140 Iranian military targets. These included missile and drone positions naval combat facilities ammunition storage depots communication networks and coastal surveillance points. U.S. Central Command summarized that the three rounds of strikes this week had hit more than 300 targets. The command added that since early May U.S. forces have helped more than 800 commercial ships and 400 million barrels of crude oil passed safely through the Strait of Hormuz and commercial shipping continues through this vital international maritime route. According to comprehensive reports from Iranian media the U.S. third round strikes directly hit five new hidden zones in southern Iran. These include Bushehr, the key nuclear power city whose suburbs host Iran's only operating nuclear power plant Asa Luyeh, the largest natural gas base where a natural gas plant reportedly caught fire Bandar Abbas at the throat of the Strait of Hormuz the missile position front at Sirik and the strategic island of Qeshm. These locations form almost the entire lifeline of Iran's navy missile forces and energy facilities. At the same time Multiple waves of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and the UAE. According to preliminary reports from the respective countries most incoming missiles and drones were successfully intercepted by air defense systems and actual losses remained relatively limited. Notably, the Revolutionary Guard claimed that the strike range even extended to Oman's Dukhiem port which also serves as a U.S. Navy logistics center. Iran had previously sought cooperation with Oman to jointly collect transit fees through the Strait of Hormuz. The rapid change in attitude has come surprisingly quickly. According to Al Jazeera the United States has just struck a communication tower in Iran's southern city of Kerman injuring at least two people. Kerman lies in Iran's central southern inland region. All three previous rounds of U.S. strikes had focused on the southern coastal areas. If confirmed this could indicate that the U.S. is further expanding the scope of its strikes. Situation escalates to the extreme Iran rejects U.S. ultimatum and vows revenge assassination list leaked most global leaders targeted. Iran had directly rejected America's final ultimatum and announced that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to all passages except the northern route leading to Iran. According to sources cited by Tasnim any decision regarding the Strait As the U.S. ultimatum entered its final moments Iran swore to take revenge. Supreme leader Mojtaba declared that revenge must absolutely be carried out. Iran's Hamshari newspaper published an assassination list naming those it accuses of being behind the plot to assassinate Khamenei. The headline read revenge is inevitable. The paper quoted Mojtaba as saying these criminals will take their hope for a peaceful death with them to the grave. The list includes Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu U.S. President Trump U.S. Secretary of State Rubio U.S. War Minister Hegseth U.S. Central Command Commander Brad Cooper U.S. Ambassador to Israel Huckabee Israeli Defense Minister Katz IDF Chief of Staff Zamir Foreign Minister Sayar as well as the leaders of Britain France Germany and Italy. In response to Iran's threats President Trump posted that 1,000 missiles have been locked and loaded aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran. If the Iranian government acts on its announced assassination threats around the world or attempts to assassinate the sitting President of the United States Trump stated that the order has been given U.S. forces are ready and willing and may within one year or an extended period completely destroy all regions of Iran. If such statements prove accurate they would mark an extremely serious escalation. Any assassination attempt against the U.S. President could trigger a severe response yet openly threatening massive destruction will only heighten tensions and increase the risk of regional conflict expansion. Diplomatic mediation and de-escalation efforts remain critically important. In addition following Iran's resumption of attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC sanctioned an Iranian financier accused of large-scale corruption and transferring public funds overseas. OFAC also targeted Iranian exchanges and banks for moving billions of dollars in currency that had previously gone unsanctioned. U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant stated bluntly that every Iranian attack is paid for through Iranian accounts. The financial war has never stopped. Commentators note that the new sanctions against Iran clearly signal the United States has exited the memorandum of understanding the ceasefire and the memorandum have in effect come to an end. Middle East sources indicate that the United States is pushing to restart an oil pipeline connecting Iraq and Syria allowing Iraq to export crude oil while bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement is expected to be announced during Iraqi Prime Minister Zaidi's meeting with President Trump at the White House next week. The pipeline approximately 800 kilometers long has been out of service for decades and severely damaged. Authorities say it may require complete reconstruction with the project expected to take two to three years. A number of American companies have already been recruited to participate. Originally built in 1952, the pipeline suffered serious damage during the Iran-Iraq war and subsequent US strikes on Iraq. With Iran tightening its control over the Strait of Hormuz, the urgency to restart the pipeline has become extremely pressing. According to CNN reporting, Oman has drafted a proposal to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz via two separate channels controlled by different parties. Both channels would remain open. The southern channel passing through Omani waters would maintain pre-war conditions of free navigation, while the northern channel passing through Iranian waters would require prior approval from Iran and would not involve the collection of transit fees. Trump-enraged leaker must-go-to-jail New York Times in big trouble as FBI director personally launches full investigation. The new Air Force One is a Boeing 747-8 recently gifted by Qatar and put into service. The New York Times reported that due to security concerns, especially amid heightened U.S.-Iran tensions, President Trump followed Secret Service advice in Turkey and departed aboard the old Air Force One instead of the new aircraft. The Trump administration views this reporting as the media leaking sensitive national security information and using the security of the presidential aircraft for political attacks. On Friday, federal agents personally delivered subpoenas to several New York Times reporters, including Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Taylor Page and Eric Schmidt. Next week, they are scheduled to testify before a Manhattan federal grand jury on suspicion of violating federal criminal law. The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence. The New York Times has publicly described this as an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration's campaign against the media. However, commentators argue that the New York Times is finally being held accountable for what may amount to reckless or false reporting. National security is not a toy for media political attacks. The Trump administration's countermove is firm and the facts will ultimately speak for themselves. The New York Times has a history of inaccurate reporting on Shen Yun art troupe and related Falun Gong groups. Shen Yun and Falun Gong organizations have accused the paper of serious factual errors bias and even attacks influenced by the Chinese Communist Party actions that themselves raise suspicions of interfering in internal religious affairs and engaging in religious discrimination. Shen Yun art troupe has received unanimous praise from elites worldwide during its global tours, described as the world's top show and a showcase of the authentic Chinese traditional culture destroyed by the CCP. The Chinese Communist Party has long dispatched agents around the world to create intimidation incidents and the New York Times has aligned with CCP wishes by smearing Falun Gong from a media perspective, for example, claiming injured performers received no treatment or that actors were abused during rehearsals. Shen Yun performers have clarified that the troupe maintains dedicated physicians to treat injuries. In any dance group, rigorous training and occasional injuries are standard and common knowledge. Using such incidents to criticize the troupe is equivalent to denying the training realities of the entire dance profession. An Epoch Times special report points out that while Falun Gong suffers inhumane persecution at the hands of the CCP, New York Times reporters have used a magnifying glass to hunt for problems among the persecuted and published a series of misleading articles, a motive that appears highly suspicious. Falun Gong is a religious group registered with the U.S. government based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, supplemented by five sets of slow exercises designed to elevate practitioners' minds and improve their health. The Epoch Times special report further notes that from the religious-themed paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance to choir hymns, Buddhist chants praising the Three Jewels, and cave temple statues, the creation of Shen Yun Art Troupe by Falun Gong practitioners is nothing surprising. Even if outsiders do not understand it, they have no right to interfere. The New York Times is a century-old newspaper that once enjoyed an excellent reputation. Credibility is the lifeblood of any media outlet. If no one believes the New York Times reporting anymore, the paper will completely lose its reason for existence. This is a point worth serious consideration by the New York Times executives and publisher. We value your perspective. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you found this report meaningful, please share it with others. Your support helps us continue delivering independent, fact-based analysis on global affairs. Subscribe and like to stay informed with State of Play. Thank you for watching.