Russia's Mobilization Fulfilled; Hurdles Yet To Surface

"We have stopped sending notices to people, and the task you set, 300,000 people, has been completed. No further measures are planned. [According to Shoigu, 82,000 soldiers have been sent to the conflict zone in Ukraine, with half of those assigned to active-duty units, and others continuing to do combat training.] Over 1,300 government representatives, 27,000 entrepreneurs, and 13,000 volunteers were called up and joined the ranks; the average age of those mobilized is 35 years."

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu

 

"It’s necessary to draw the necessary conclusions and modernize the entire system of work of military registration and enlistment offices." 

"Based on the experience of conducting a special military operation, we need to think over and make adjustments to the way we build all components of the armed forces, including the ground forces."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin inspects a training ground in the Ryazan region earlier in October for recruits who were summoned into military service under the now-suspended "partial mobilization."  Kremlin Press Office/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Which begs the question: how is it that the immense, Russian military with its technologically superior, up-dated munitions, rocketry, missiles nuclear-driven war machinery-equipped force somehow neglected the primary function of a national military in proper training for its troops? And if the military elite at the ranks of commanders, generals and those in command of the servicemen they urge to superior performance on the battlefield, while failing to respect the basic tenets of modern warfare including protection of civilian population welfare fail, how can they sustain pridel?

 

This has been a military adventure that failed to deliver what its commander-in-chief demanded of the national armed forces. Forces that failed to distinguish themselves on the battlefield, so that orders to resort to aerial bombings became urgent while the rank-and-file occupying villages and towns felt free to engage in war crimes, murdering civilians, looting and raping. A 'special military operation' that was not a war where those in command became the martyrs to an odious cause of destroying a country, dying at a inexplicable rate, the result of Ukrainian defiance and counterattack.

 

A war that is not a war going so badly for the aggressors that the regular army was seen as insufficient in numbers (much less effectiveness) as to risk havoc on the home front with mass protests certain to erupt with a mobilization call, due to extenuating circumstances. However, Moscow has now announced the reservist call-up is now complete, the mission to draft 300,000 in a month accomplished. Over a quarter of those recruits already appearing in the field of battle. The necessary training? Well... 

 

According to trusted accounts, the newly minted soldiers on occasion were sent to the trenches mere days following a summons, training considered an unnecessary distraction. A count of 44 mobilized Russian servicemen have given their all in Ukraine, to be delivered back to their families in boxes, according to media reports and public obituaries. Some 30 others evidently took suicide as a way out of the morass they found themselves in. 

 

Others whose poor health should have prevented their mobilization have succumbed. Morale, never high at the best of times raises an issue of Russian enlistment offices failing to adhere to the impact of health requirements in the process of recruitment. Such nuisance details highlight the decrepit state of the Russian military and the casual attitude toward a growing death count, augmenting the already steep casualty rate of this special military operation.

 

Center for Strategic and International Studies

 

The mobilization drive that sent tens of thousands of Russians out of the country in a desperate attempt to evade recruitment gave impetus to sustained public protests against the war. Appearances are everything; vital propaganda tools that all is well, with Mr. Putin thanking reservists "for their dedication to duty, for their patriotism, for their firm determination to defend our country, to defend Russia, which means their home, their family  our citizens our people".

Initial issues in the supply of uniforms and weapons to newly mobilized troops were unfortunate, mentioned Defence Minister Shoigu, but now resolved. The good news is that the 'partial' mobilization has been completed. After conflict setbacks finally impacting personally and directly from the special military operation. Anti-mobilization protests saw over 2,000 people arrested. Taking place mostly in areas where ethnic minorities dominate the population, where they charge having been disproportionately targeted to be sent to the front lines. 

The call-up resulted in men who were too old or unfit being notified for duty. Former Soviet republics  neighbouring Russia have given haven to tens of thousands of Russian men who fled the country in avoidance of being forced to fight. The excessive need and speed of recruitment speaks of desperation, an indication that Russia is steadily moving toward losing a brutal war they imposed on Ukraine, where mobilization to fight back encountered another kind of reality, that men too old to fight committed themselves regardless in protection of their nation.

Ukrainian forces are slowly, steadily and successfully moving toward Kherson. Both troops, Russian and Ukraine have dug into muddy trench lines north of Kherson where rocket, mortar and artillery fire is constantly exchanged; the Russians firing over five times the numbers coming from the Ukraine side. Russians were using a grain silo about a kilometre from the trenches for cover and observation. 

 

Ukrainian gunners manning a 120 mm mortar hidden in bushes target the Russian armoured vehicles and ammunition behind the silo, trying to avoid hitting the structure in reflection of its vital importance to the agricultural region. "For every one shell that we send, they send back five. They shoot at us most of the time", said 51-year-old Ukrainian soldier Hennadyi.

 

A Russian serviceman addresses reservists at a gathering point in the course of partial mobilization of troops, aimed to support the country's military campaign in Ukraine, in the town of Volzhsky in the Volgograd region, Russia September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer