Russia’s Vladimir Putin is summoning an additional 134,500 conscripts even as a growing number of his own troops turn against him over humiliating losses in Ukraine.
According to a Orders announced on the Russian government portal on Thursday, the troops will be called to begin service from April 1 until July 15. The Defense Ministry promised earlier this week that it “will be” not sent to any hot spots” and all those called to last spring’s draft will be sent home.
But those assurances seem to be overshadowed by countless reports that Russia’s pointless war against Ukraine has been marred by top-down lies, with the Russian military claiming they were mistaken. into the war and Putin’s advisers are said to be covering for him. heavy damage.
Even as Putin signed the decree on Thursday, the Security Service of Ukraine announced a blocked calls said to arrest a Russian soldier railing before the helplessness of his army.
“Our brigade was completely damned. There are many losses, many injured,” he told his wife.
When asked if the loss was the result of someone being negligent, he bluntly replied: “The entire army is with us idiots.”
“It’s not clear why we’re here,” he said.
Another recording shared by Anton Gerashchenkoan adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, photographed a man identified as a Russian soldier named Maksim asking his mother what was being shown on Russian television and if there were reports “they said they would change change anything”.
“Things were so bad, there were hardly any of us left. They said we would continue until the end, until everyone is killed,” he told his mother.
When asked if his senior officer was still in the unit, he replied: “No, yesterday he dumped us. We would all die in the water if he left. ”
The new recordings come just hours after Western officials said there was growing evidence of anarchy and disillusionment in the Russian military, with Britain’s police chief citing reports. military report”refuse to fulfill the ordersabotage their own equipment and even accidentally shoot down their own plane.”
Against this backdrop, Russian defense officials announced they would cut back on hostilities around the Ukrainian capital and instead shift focus to the east of the country – an announcement met with ridicule and nostalgia. suspicion among Ukrainian officials, who say the Kremlin is trying to turn around many of their failures in a “mission accomplished” scenario.
Perhaps as part of that long game, the Kremlin is said to have begun working on a plan to send psychologists from the FSB to Kherson, a city in the south of Ukraine, where people continue to resist. Russian forces took over after the February 24 invasion.
“In order to work out a scenario for the creation of another pseudo-republic on the territory of the Kherson region, the staff of the FSB, 652 psychological and information operations groups and officers of the Official Directorate 12 of [Russian] General Staff,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement on Thursday.
Ukrainian officials say the FSB’s effort is an attempt to brainwash people to support the new Russian government.
Russian law enforcement officials, prosecutors and judges are also believed to be en route to occupied territories in Ukraine, with reports of Russian police officers being asked to do so. business trips” to the regions of Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
