As Russia Retreats, Putin Claims 16,000 New Recruits Already Deployed In Ukraine

Given the faltering performance of Russian forces since the draft was instituted, that Putin claims 16,000 draftees are already on the battlefield suggests their contribution has not exactly been game-changing. JL 

Ivan Nechepurenko reports in the New York Times:

222,000 Russians already have been drafted and 16,000 of them have been deployed “in units that get involved in fulfilling combat tasks,” Mr. Putin told a news conference. (But) military bloggers have accused the Kremlin’s defense officials of throwing unprepared recruits into battle. The draft has also run into resistance across Russia as anger with the call-up spilled over into street protests. The deaths of recent recruits have been reported by local news websites and activists across the country.

With criticism from pro-war bloggers over the reported deaths of new recruits fighting in Ukraine intensifying, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday defended his recent draft, saying that he had no regrets about the war in Ukraine.

His remarks came as prominent military bloggers have accused the Kremlin’s defense officials of throwing unprepared recruits into battle. The draft has also run into resistance across Russia as villagers, activists and even some elected officials have asked why the conscription drive has appeared to hit minority groups and rural areas harder than the big cities. In late September, anger with the call-up spilled over into street protests.

Some 222,000 Russians already have been drafted and 16,000 of them have been deployed “in units that get involved in fulfilling combat tasks,” Mr. Putin told a news conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, adding that he expects the mobilization to be completed within two weeks.

When Mr. Putin announced a “partial mobilization” in September, he said that servicemen called up for active duty would “undergo mandatory additional military training.” The Russian government said that such training could take up to one month.

Russian media has reported at least seven deaths among people who were recently drafted. Asked on Friday why some mobilized servicemen had died so soon after mobilization began, Mr. Putin said that in some cases training could take just 10 days.

“The contact line is 1,100 kilometers long, it was not possible to keep it up with contract soldiers alone,” Mr. Putin said. “All mobilized citizens must be trained.”

When asked if he had any regrets about the war, Mr. Putin said “no.”

“We would get the same situation in worse conditions,” he said. “My actions were timely and right.”

Nevertheless, in late September, Mr. Putin acknowledged that there had been “mistakes” in how the Russian government had been carrying out his draft. He described cases of people entitled to deferments being wrongly drafted, such as fathers of many children, men with chronic diseases or those above military age.

The deaths of recent recruits have been reported by local news websites and activists across the country from St. Petersburg in the northwest to Chelyabinsk in the Urals. Russia’s defense ministry does not regularly provide casualty tolls.

Roman Saponkov, a Russian military blogger, responded to the reports of recent deaths by saying on Thursday that the mobilization should have been declared six months earlier, because now the country’s military command is under pressure to deploy troops to the front lines as soon as possible to help repel Ukraine’s recent battlefield advances.

“That’s why we will see many deaths among the mobilized,” he said in his blog. “Today they are superheroes who were thrown to rescue the situation at the last moment.”

Hawkish commentators criticized the initial rollout of the draft, with one popular pro-war blogger on Telegram, Rybar, saying they received “huge numbers of stories” of people with health problems or without combat experience getting draft notices.

As reports of the deaths in Ukraine filtered in this week, one Russian military blogger, who goes by the name Grey Zone and claims to be linked to the Russian mercenary community, said that the mobilization continues to be chaotic and that no lessons had been learned from the initial wave of criticism.

Russian military bloggers are an increasingly vocal and influential group of journalists and activists that support the Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine, but have castigated the country’s defense ministry and other authorities for how they are managing the war.