Ukrainians are really good at killing, wounding, and demoralizing Russian troops.
That’s left Putin scraping the bottom of the barrel for new recruits. How’s that working for him? Not well, it seems.
Previous reports have described Putin’s callup of 300,000 reserves chaotic and uncoordinated. Newsweek says conscription offices are issuing draft notices at random, including to elderly and disabled men. A Far East region was forced “to send home roughly half of its drafted men.” In Dagestan, recruiters drove loudspeaker trucks through the streets telling anyone within hearing to report. (Read story here.)
In short, he’s not raising what any honest person could call an army, to replace the one he’s lost. But if the draftees’ only function is to die in Ukraine so Putin can claim it as sacred Russian soil watered with their blood, and plans to equip them with rusty rifles that don’t fire, they don’t need to be able to aim and shoot. However, they have to be able to walk, so they can get there.
Related story: A Putin stooge is offering to send his three boys, ages 14 to 16, to fight in Ukraine (see story here). How’d you like him as your dad?