Reports from behind the front indicate Putin’s conscripts have to buy military gear on the civilian market, where prices are soaring, and pay for it themselves.
They’re complaining to wives and families back home that “the army has nothing” to issue them. “What little gear that the army does issue to newly mobilised soldiers appear to be outdated or outright inadequate,” the Guardian reported on Thursday, October 20, 2022 (read story here).
A Russian ex-pat living in the U.S. told the Guardian he isn’t surprised. “The army has always been deeply corrupt,” he said, with senior officers pocketing money intended for the troops. The Guardian says other sources indicate embezzlement is rampant in Russia’s military.
In addition, the Guardian says, Russia has been moving to a professional army in recent years, and was logistically unprepared for mass conscription. It also was unprepared for a large war. Other news stories report ammunition shortages on the battlefield.
As a U.S. military veteran, I can tell you there’s a direct relationship between morale and being fed. If the Russkies can’t equip, supply, and feed their troops headed for Ukraine, they won’t get what military analysts call “fighting efficiency.” As I see it, that’s their problem.