Putin faces a new problem inside Russia – The Guardian
The Guardian reports that Russia is facing a personnel crisis: monthly losses exceed 30,000 killed and wounded, and interest in contract service is declining. The Kremlin avoids a new mobilization, relying on material incentives, but the 'meat grinder' strategy is exhausting resources. Rumors of conscription are growing, authorities conduct raids and recruit students and prisoners.
The British newspaper The Guardian reports that Russia has encountered a new internal problem—the depletion of personnel resources amid heavy losses at the front. According to Western analysts, the army loses more than 30,000 killed and wounded every month. Unrelenting losses and declining interest among Russians in contract service threaten the continuation of hostilities. After the crisis in the fall of 2022, when authorities urgently called up 300,000 reservists, the Kremlin avoids a new mobilization, focusing on material motivation: through contracts, about 1.3 million people have been recruited. However, the 'meat grinder' strategy leads to monstrous exhaustion. Expert Janis Kluge from the German SWP notes that the flow of about a thousand daily recruits is entirely used to patch holes in bloodless units. Rumors of the inevitability of a new conscription are sweeping society, and officials, in particular Dmitry Medvedev, brand them as enemy provocations. Human rights activists record raids on men who are taken to military enlistment offices. The personnel reserve is being expanded with students and prisoners, and responsibility for recruitment has been shifted to regional governors.