![]() ![]() The reason for Russia’s losses isn’t due to a lack of military personnel, Khodakovsky argued, but rather of the “careless use” of those forces, as well as poor intelligence and insufficient equipment. ![]() Many of Russia’s problems are due to technological gaps with a NATO-armed enemy and morale, not sheer numbers.Įarlier this month, Alexander Khodakovsky, previously a leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic who now oversees the pro-Russia Vostok Battalion, said in a post on Telegram that he was against a general mobilization, and gave his assessment of the problems facing the Kremlin’s forces in Ukraine. ![]() Putin’s decision to “partially mobilize” is a fraught one, not least because it may not be the answer to his woes. A Saturday ticket to Turkey soared to €2,870 while before Putin’s announcement, a one-way ticket cost about €350. On Tuesday, with reports that Putin was going to deliver an address that night (an address that was ultimately delayed till Wednesday morning), flights filled in minutes and airfares out of Russia spiked. Many correctly sensed that bill was the first step toward mobilization - Russians of fighting age among them. The bill also proposed replacing unserved jail terms with forced labor for prisoners, and established liability for looting and voluntary surrender. On Tuesday, the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, adopted a bill that included references to mobilization and martial law (though it did not impose these emergency measures, but rather ramped up punishments if crimes are committed during periods of “mobilization” and martial law”). In the lead-up to Wednesday’s mobilization announcement, pundits and political figures had increasingly been calling for Putin to announce a general mobilization, which would allow Russia to call up all reservists and introduce conscription, and declare a war economy, which could see the Kremlin compel companies to manufacture military supplies, and force people to work overtime for the war effort. But benefits such as pensions, free apartments and early release from prison lose their appeal when weighed against the increasing odds of not returning from the front to enjoy them. Reports have emerged of Russia using a mix of coercion and bribery to attract more people into its armed forces - including summonses sent to veterans, reduced health and age requirements for military service, recruitment drives at prisons and increasing incentives offered to those who sign up for the war effort. Putin seems to have embraced that approach, last month restoring the million-ruble “Mother Heroine” award established by Stalin in 1944 for women who give birth to and raise 10 or more children.īut it’ll take some time for those kids to reach military age - so what was Putin to do in the meantime, to replenish his cannon-fodder? According to legend, when confronted with the scene of a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Swedes in the Battle of Narva in 1700 in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter the Great was reassured by an aide, who said: “Russian mothers will produce more sons.” Even if he didn’t use those exact words, the sentiment goes back a long way. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is often associated with the quip that “quantity has a quality all its own,” when explaining Russia’s willingness to accept huge casualty numbers. Russia also massively miscalculated the morale gap and underestimated how hard soldiers fight when they know they are facing an existential struggle against a genocidal enemy that resorts to torture, rape and murder. On the battlefield, the Russians were struggling to crack Ukrainian troops supplied with billions of dollars-worth of Western equipment (not to mention Western intel). When Putin first launched what he disingenuously calls a “special military operation” against Ukraine in February, much was made of the Russians’ superior strike-power.īut despite vastly outnumbering Ukrainian forces, after almost seven months of fierce resistance, the Russian steamroller was clearly running out of steam.
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