Interview: Dima of Military Summary channel, put your likes

A lot of very interesting updates

hello my dear friends!

Perhaps the most prolific online video mapper of the war in Ukraine is a fellow named Dima in Belarus, whose Military Summary Channel on YouTube and Rumble posts 2 updates a day (morning and evening), jam packed with geo-located videos and news from the front line. The main takeaway from Dima’s coverage is just how enormous in scale this war has become. For example, Dima reports Ukraine’s daily casualties as claimed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, which have consistently remained for the last few months at many hundreds of soldiers per day, often over a thousand, and dozens of NATO provided equipment, again, daily. (Dima describes these daily loss reports as “very heavy”.) A native Russian speaker, Dima is a rare voice online who condemns the violence even as he reports it in granular detail, down to the regimental level. You can find the Military Summary Channel on Twitter here. Below is my email interview with Dima.

1. Everyone thinks you're in Belarus, is that true?

Yes I am from Belarus.

2. Your many fans enjoy your taglines adding to the English language, for example, "put your likes", "tasty cake", etc. Where/how did you learn your excellent English?

When I first started recording videos, first of all I translated some of my phrases from Russian into English using Google translator. Literally all these funny phrases are how they sound and are built in Russian.

3. You're the most consistent video mapper of the war with 2 reports a day - how do you manage?

I'm not alone. I have a small team of 3 people: Me, one software developer, and telegram analyst. Together we monitor the situation and try to optimize the process as best we can, which gives us the opportunity to do 2 videos a day. For example, I sleep at night, and the telegram analyst collects all the most important news during the night. In the morning I use his material to make a morning video. He sleeps during the day and I work.

4. What sort of software do you use to make those maps?

The map I'm using is built using React framework on front-end and
Nest.js framework on back-end. I am planning to publish the map very
soon. There are still a lot of things to work on.

5. How do you verify your information? I notice you always cite the MOD of Russian Federation daily.

Much of the information is verified using location-based videos, trusted sources, and OSINT. We are following many Ukrainian and Russian sources, and based on the conclusions from both of them, we get a clearer picture. As far as MODs go, they are pretty reliable if you take everything into account.

6. Are you able to make any money off all this very hard work?

Yes. Lot of people support channel. I never imagined that i will have almost 150k youtube subs. Its pretty surreal.

7. Do you have long term goals/plans for the Military Summary channel?

We will be posting our map online soon. When we finish the development of the map, we'll see. Something is constantly happening in the world, wars, coups, crises or various political events. But the main focus is on the map. We plan to give everyone the opportunity to use the map, record their views on various topics. For example, we plan to let people choose different topics that they can cover using the map. Let's say sports or football events. The blogger will be able to independently map football clubs, photos of famous athletes, and more.

8. What sources can you recommend online for good coverage of the war?

Today all the news can be found in the Telegram. So I will recommend one source - Telegram. Everything's there. The main thing is to learn how to filter the information received.

9. You condemn any violence in the world at the end of your videos - would you describe yourself as a Ghandian sort of guy?

I think yes. The most important thing that a person has is a peaceful sky above his head, health and happiness of relatives and friends. When all this is there, then there is time to develop and improve your life and the lives of the people around you.

10. Do you have a favorite rock and roll band?

I guess Paint It Black is my favourite rock and roll song and The Rolling Stones are the best.

11. Anything else you'd like your fans to know?

Dear friends, take care of yourself and your loved ones, do not give in to provocations, think with your head, do not risk for the sake of other people's interests, do not make mistakes in youth, do not attract unnecessary attention, do not tell your secrets to anyone, believe in good, do good, donate money to those in need, help the elderly, protect children and women, be noble. And always, every day, 24 hours, seven days a week LEARN, LEARN and LEARN again.