Recruits only Ukraine cannon fodder?

British intelligence points to structural problem in Russia's army

Created: 09/26/2022, 15:34

By: Florian Naumann, Franziska Schwarz

According to an analysis, the conscription in Russia is not going as planned.

Warning shots are fired in Dagestan.

News ticker on military events in the Ukraine war.

• Russian

  army in the

  Ukraine war

  : Moscow apparently sends new soldiers to the front unprepared

• Anger in

  Russia

  ?

  Dagestan

  in focus: Videos show Putin's police in trouble

• Putin's Navy

  and attacks in the

  Baltic Sea

  : German Vice Admiral warns - "Embargo is not yet effective"

• This

  news ticker on military developments

  in the Ukraine war is constantly updated.

Update from September 26, 1:01 p.m

.: The first soldiers that Putin had newly recruited through his partial mobilization have arrived at the military bases.

"Several tens of thousands" of convocation letters had been sent.

The British secret service reported this on Twitter, and predicted that Moscow would have “administrative and logistical problems” in having the recruits trained.

In the Russian army, in contrast to many western armies, it is customary to undergo initial training within operational units rather than in special training institutions.

A certain number of instructors are normally assigned within each brigade to train new recruits.

However, many of these so-called third battalions are currently deployed to Ukraine.

The lack of training of the Russian soldiers now makes high losses in the attack on Ukraine likely.

Putin needs supplies: Russian soldiers are supposed to go into the Ukraine war with rusty weapons (symbolic photo).

© Sergei Bobylev/Imago

Mercenaries in the Ukraine war: "Putin's cook" claims to be the founder of the Wagner Group

Update from September 26, 10:44 a.m

.: Yevgeny Prigozhin is said to have close ties to Putin.

The Russian businessman has now announced his founding of the Wagner mercenary group - and has confirmed their operations in countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He founded the group in May 2014 to send fighters to the Ukrainian Donbass, Prigozhin said in a statement from his company.

From this point on, "a group of patriots" was born, which "later received the name battalion tactical group Wagner".

Prigozhin further explained: "And now a confession (...) these guys, heroes, defended the Syrian people, other peoples in Arab countries, the disadvantaged in Africa and Latin America, they have become a pillar of our fatherland."

For years, the paramilitary Wagner group has been suspected of working in secret for the Kremlin at various conflict sites.

Moscow has always denied this and has denied any connection with paramilitary groups.

Prigozhin himself was for a time one of the suppliers of the Kremlin's kitchens, earning him the nickname "Putin's Chef".

also read

Ex-oligarch warns the West: In this scenario, "Putin will be at the NATO border tomorrow"

Putin on a luxury vacation?

After partial mobilization, Russia's rulers are said to have left Moscow

Also known as "Putin's Chef": Yevgeny Prigozhin (archive image from 2016) © ITAR-TASS/Imago

Russian army in the Ukraine war: Moscow apparently sends new soldiers to the front unprepared

Update from September 26, 7:01 a.m .:

The Russian army should send new soldiers who are recruited during partial mobilization directly to the front without training.

This was reported by the Ukrainian General Staff on Sunday (September 25) on its Facebook page.

The aim is to replace the losses in your own units as quickly as possible.

This has a significant impact on the morale and psychological state of the soldiers, the general staff continues.

In addition, the quality of the Russian combat units is said to suffer.

Russian recruits board a bus near a military recruitment center in the Russian city of Krasnodar.

(Photo from September 25, 2022) © dpa/ap/picture alliance

Forced recruitment: men from occupied Melitopol could be misused as “cannon fodder”.

Update from September 26, 7:01 a.m .:

The mayor of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine, Ivan Fedorov, fears that Ukrainians in these regions will also be recruited for Russian military service.

"They will force the men to fight in their armed forces," Fedorov told Funke Mediengruppe newspapers (Monday editions).

Men between the ages of 18 and 63 are not allowed to leave his city of Melitopol, Fedorov said.

This is a big problem.

The men were advised to leave Melitopol for Crimea and travel from there to Georgia or the European Union.

But now the city and the villages in the region are sealed off.

Russia does not allow travel between towns and villages.

“They will draft our men and use them as cannon fodder.

They will mobilize all men, no matter what age," the mayor said.

He emphasized that similar actions by the Russian occupying forces could already be observed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The men there had "no chance to say no," he said.

Ukraine-News: Zelenskyy reacts to protests in the Russian republic of Dagestan

Update from September 25, 10:35 p.m .:

Volodymyr Zelenskyj has responded to reports of protests against Russia’s partial mobilization in Dagestan: “We see that people, especially in Dagestan, have started fighting for their lives,” said Zelenskyj in his daily video address .

He was referring to violent protests that had broken out hours earlier in the Muslim-dominated Russian republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus.

In a village from which 110 men were to be conscripted for the war against Ukraine, police officers reportedly even fired warning shots at demonstrators on Sunday.

"I emphasize once again: there is no way out," said Zelenskyj.

"Escape.

Or go into Ukrainian captivity at the first opportunity.”

Anger in Russia?

Dagestan in focus – videos show Putin's police in trouble

Update from September 25, 7.40 p.m .: Alleged

clashes between the police and opponents of the Russian partial mobilization in Dagestan are of great interest to the Ukrainian media.

The two portals

and

shared several videos in the evening that are supposed to show the difficulties of the forces loyal to Putin.

For example, the arrest of a protester was prevented.

Demonstrators also violently attacked police officers, and a group of women chanted "No to war!"

There was no official confirmation for these representations.

Nexta wrote that there were protests not only in small villages allegedly massively affected by the mobilization (see previous update), but also in the capital of Dagestan,

.

There, the Russian National Guard surrounded demonstrators.

According to reports from the two Ukrainian media, there was also a detonation in the Russian-held city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine on Sunday.

According to initial findings, a car exploded.

Nothing was initially known about the occupants.

These reports could not be verified.

In August, a deadly attack on the car of Kremlin propagandist Darya Dugina made international headlines.

Anger at Putin's partial mobilization in southern Russia?

Video is said to show police warning shots

Update from September 25, 5:52 p.m .:

In the Russian republic of Dagestan, the police allegedly fired warning shots against protests against the Russian partial mobilization.

This is what civil rights activists report on Sunday.

Videos show police officers pointing guns in the air, then shots are heard.

Wrangling between residents and officials can also be seen.

According to Dagestani media, the protest was a reaction to 110 men from the village being forced into the war against Ukraine.

In the village of Endirej, residents had blocked a road to prevent the partial mobilization ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the independent organization OVD-Info announced on Sunday.

Muslim Dagestan is one of the regions of Russia from which, according to observers, a particularly large number of men are conscripted.

Activists complain that members of ethnic minorities are particularly hard hit by the mobilization and therefore sometimes even speak of "ethnic cleansing".

This photo shows people in Makhachkala at a military recruitment center last Thursday (September 22).

© IMAGO/Stringer

Putin's Navy and attacks in the Baltic Sea: German Vice Admiral warns - "Embargo is not yet effective"

Update from September 25, 2:42 p.m

.: According to the assessment of the German naval inspector Jan Christian Kaack, the Russian Navy is being upgraded despite the western embargo and the Ukraine war.

"I assume that the Russian Navy will emerge from the Ukraine war essentially strengthened," the vice admiral told the

.

“We are currently recognizing the unchecked construction of modern units that are highly effectively equipped.

The Western embargo doesn't seem to be taking effect yet."

The units would be equipped with supersonic weapons or Iskander ballistic missiles.

Putin's announcement that new hypersonic sea missiles called "Zirkon" would soon be put into service on a frigate was not propaganda: "I take it seriously.

Very seriously."

At the same time, Kaack warned of Russian attacks under water.

“On the bottom of the Baltic Sea, but also in the Atlantic, there is some critical infrastructure such as pipelines or undersea cables for IT.

They can quickly switch off the lights in countries like Estonia, and there are threats to global communication structures that you have to pay particular attention to.” According to Kaack, Russian underwater or surface units have recently been in the area of ​​these cables for a long time.

Ukraine-News: Sham referendums continue despite shelling

Update from September 25, 1:26 p.m

.: The mock referendums in Ukraine continue despite the shelling.

According to the Russian occupation authorities, two people died in a hotel in the Kherson region on Sunday in a Ukrainian rocket attack.

In the city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhia region, a polling station had to be relocated to another location due to massive shelling from the Ukrainian side, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.

This information could not be independently verified.

The votes, which have been criticized internationally as a breach of international law, are also scheduled for Tuesday in the Donetsk region.

Secret service: Partial mobilization is also putting pressure on Putin's national guard

Update from September 25, 10:53 a.m

.: According to British assessments, the Russian National Guard (Rosgwardija) is increasingly under pressure.

"There is a realistic possibility that the mobilization will be used to reinforce the Rosgwardiya units with additional forces," said the Ministry of Defense in London, citing intelligence findings.

There have already been calls in Moscow to extend the partial mobilization to the troops, the authority emphasized. "Rosgwardiya units have played an important role both in the fight and in securing the rear in Ukraine and are currently facilitating accession referendums in the occupied territories". , it was said in London.

The troops, which belong to the Ministry of the Interior, are actually intended for use in Russia and should help to secure Putin's "regime".

"She was particularly ill-prepared for the intense fighting in Ukraine," the ministry said.

"Given the need to quell the growing dissent in Russia, as well as operational tasks in Ukraine, Rosgwardiya is most likely under particular pressure."

Partial mobilization by Putin: insiders report chaos

First report from September 25

: Kiev/Washington - who should now go to the Ukraine war for Russia?

A missing point in the decree created confusion on the issue.

According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Moscow wants to conscript a total of 300,000 men - that could contradict Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's plan, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its latest update from September 25.

Putin's partial mobilization: Insider reports resistance in the Defense Ministry

Russian Defense Ministry officials are said to have reprimanded military officials for sending out “excessive” drafts without paying attention to exceptions such as age or restrictions.

The ISW reports, citing an unnamed insider.

According to the ISW report, the federal districts are responsible for conducting conscription, while the Ministry of Defense sets the quotas and deadlines.

But here there is now "confusion, disorganization and violations of the specifications."

"This points to a possible rift between Shoigu and Putin," is the assessment of the military experts from the ISW.

The ISW is a think tank based in Washington.

Protests in Russia: Selenskyj calls on Moscow to give up

After new protests against Russian partial mobilization, Volodymyr Zelenskyj has meanwhile called on Moscow's fighters to surrender.

It is better to refuse to be called up for service than to die as a war criminal on foreign soil, the Ukrainian president said in a video message - in Russian.

At the same time he offered that Russian soldiers could voluntarily go into captivity.

There they would be treated in a civilized manner.

The partial mobilization for the Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered panic among many Russians, and many are trying to leave the country.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested during protests in dozens of cities in Russia since Wednesday (September 21).