Ukraine war: Putin is probably making up for losses with reservists - the British suspect new tactics

Created: 06/27/2022, 11:07 am

By: Stephanie Munk

Russia's losses in the Ukraine war are probably immense.

Is that why Putin is changing his tactics?

The news ticker about the war.

• Russia

  is probably using more

  reservists

  : The British secret service shared new findings

• This 

  news ticker on military developments

   in the Ukraine war is constantly 

  updated

  .

  You can read the background to the Ukraine war here.

Kyiv/Moscow - Is there a general mobilization of Russia in the Ukraine war?

Some experts think it is conceivable that Russian President Vladimir Putin will mobilize all of his country's available soldiers to compensate for the many soldiers who died during the Ukraine war - according to estimates, around 12,000 Russian soldiers have now fallen in the fighting.

However, the British secret service does not believe in this, but assumes that Putin is using a different tactic.

As the British Ministry of Defense announced on Monday (June 27), citing intelligence information, the Russian army will probably increasingly rely on reservists in the future.

Presumably, Russian battalions in the Ukraine war would be replenished with veterans who have served in the past five years.

There are also reports that Russia is luring new soldiers with money in order to recruit them to fight in the Ukraine war.

Ukraine war: General mobilization would be a delicate step for Putin

, US military expert Michael Kofmann reckons

that Putin has deployed around 125,000 soldiers in the Ukraine war so far.

According to estimates, around ten percent have fallen.

In addition, there are many more wounded soldiers who are no longer able to fight.

However, there are no exact, independently verified figures on Russian troop strength and the number of dead and wounded soldiers.

Nevertheless, a general mobilization for Putin would be a step that would be difficult to justify domestically: he would then no longer be able to dismiss the Ukraine war as a special military operation as easily as he has been doing since the start of his war of aggression.

The British Ministry of Defense therefore believes in its latest analysis: "Despite a persistent lack of deployable reservists for Ukraine, the Russian leadership will probably continue to hesitate to order a general mobilization," it said.

War in Ukraine: British secret service assumes Putin's new target

Tactically, the Russian focus is still on eastern Ukraine, and Russian soldiers are currently trying to form a pocket around the city of Lysychansk.

But the British ministry also sees an additional plan: "A week of constant heavy shelling indicates that Russia is now trying to gain momentum on the northern Izyum axis." make good use of the wooded terrain for defense.

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"Danger relatively high": New Bundeswehr decision-maker wants to arm NATO for a possible "push" to Putin

G7 decide new sanctions against Moscow – Russia should “pay for the costs of the war”

The British Navy has no plans to help bypass the Russian blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

"It is very, very dangerous right now to try to send ships into the Black Sea," Prime Minister George Eustice told UK news channel Sky News.

The area is mined and Ukraine itself has closed ports for security reasons, Eustice said.

A US general has already warned against the liberation of the ports, because this is "highly risky".

"We're looking at what we can do to help repair railroads, we're looking at a land bridge so we can get wheat across the land border.

“