Right I love how their sub-headline immediately contradicts the headline by saying "He wants to avoid a general mobilization, so the military is relying on other methods."
It's also hard to know exactly how desperate for manpower the Russians really are, considering that the US was sending national guard and reserve forces to Iraq throughout the war, and there was plenty of talk of the US Army struggling to meet its recruitment goals.
OK but this war is not even at 4 months. How long did it take before national guard/reserve were sent to Iraq and before talk of US Army struggling to reach its recruitment goals? Surely it was much later?
Seems like the National Guard were there even before the invasion began:
> Already participating in combat operations in Afghanistan, the National Guard lived up to its motto of "Always Ready, Always There," and answered the call in January 2003 to send troops to Iraq for the beginning stages of what would later be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
> And of course by "All the Stops" Der Spiegel means many but not all.
To me it seemed very clear and easy to understand. The article summary, right on the second sentence, says in no ambiguous terms "He wants to avoid a general mobilization, so the military is relying on other methods."
The article then goes on how Russia's regime is resorting to very desperate measures to recruit troops, including posting fake general mobilization orders to deceive reservists.
Taken from the article:
> The Russian army is using all means at its disposal to find reinforcements. They are luring them with attractive offers, issuing threats and even simulating a general mobilization by sending out huge numbers of summons to reservists – which some, either out of ignorance or fear, interpret as a call up order.
> But an official call up can only take place once Putin declares a general mobilization. That, though, would be an indirect admission of his army’s weakness, a military force that had been considered vastly superior to Ukraine’s army prior to the invasion. More importantly, a general mobilization would have a more direct impact on the daily lives of Russians, which the Kremlin wants to avoid at all costs. The result has been a kind of veiled mobilization.
"Kirill Krechetov[...]asks that his real name not be used out of concern for his safety."
'He was initially contacted several weeks before the summons letter landed in his mailbox – in the form of a message sent via the messaging service Viber: Kirill Ivanovich, we are waiting for you, Krasnodarski Krai, 10th Brigade of the GRU Special Forces."'
I’d guess not. Ivanovich is the patronym of the pseudonym, the full pseudonym thus being Kirill Ivanovich Krechetov. Unless you meant Krasnodarski Krai which refers to a place, not a person.
Ivanovich is a common middle name. And in russian language, when you want to refer to someone in a formal way, you use "Firstname Middlename" (unlike "Mr Lastname" in english). That's how you would refer to your school teacher, to your boss, to an acquaintance/someone you dont know closely, how a bank teller would talk to you, etc.
You joke, but that's pretty much how it is in Russian lol.
Unlike in English-centered naming conventions (and probably others, but I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on that), in Russian you dont really choose a child's middle name. It is always just father's name with slight suffix changes based on whether the person is a male (resulting in a -vich ending) or female (-vna ending).
For example, if your first name is Alexey, and you have a son and a daughter, their middle names will be Alexeyevich and Alexeyevna respectively.
Hard to imagine someone who is conscripted, goes through training, now living under a military command structure is making much of a free choice when officers tell them they should sign up to go to Ukraine…
And that is why, even before Ukraine, the US military has been obsessed with creating a drone army, airforce and navy. They've already laid the ground work by militarising space - a planetwide network of satellites will form the future backbone of a drone military. They've experienced first-hand in Vietnam what happens when military is demoralised and of soldiers who were forced into it.
"Conscription in the United States, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the federal government of the United States in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_Sta...
Conscripted anyone, that is, since about 1972. You will correct if I am wrong, but I believe that the youngest men ever drafted into the US military were born in 1953. I got my draft card--long since lost--in 1973, but never seriously supposed that I would get greetings from the president.
Interesting in that some men in the highest echelons of power today are that old, but that's 69 which is past normal retirement age and in the next few years they will be disappearing.
Sometimes I think about the time a Holocaust survivor visited my high school and what it means when they are all dead.
Seeing that something like ONE-EIGHTH of the Russian Army's total forces are in action in the Ukraine (about 120K out of about one million), the article is more than likely to be clickbait propaganda.
Otherwise, what is Russia doing with the other 850,000 soldiers?
Mind you, it's always possible that those other 850,000 guys are on landing barges about to hit the beaches in Louisiana. /s
Russia does not have a million soldiers. The total employed in the armed forces is about a million, including Air Force, Navy, logistics, mechanics etc. Actual men on the ground with rifles is much lower.
It's got about half of that combat troops, according to IISS Military Balance 2021, of which 400K are ground troops.
What they do however is rotate them very often. Reportedly they spend a week at a to,e on the battlefield, then they get rest for a week or two, etc.
This way their entire military gets actual combat experience, the troops are always fresh, and the moral is high. Same with equipment, regular maintenance, etc.
Which is basically why they are able to do the slow grind at the pace they want.
>This way their entire military gets actual combat experience, the troops are always fresh, and the moral is high. Same with equipment, regular maintenance, etc.
Russia's military, of course, noted for their experience, freshness, and high morale. Along with having properly maintained equipment.
It's good never to underestimate your enemy out of pure spite, it prevents loss in battle and war.
I also think you entire missed the tense of my answer, which is that they are _getting experience_ in the present, while staying freshly rested. Like it or not its a fact. And ever since the first week (when they arrested 450 officers of various ranks for a litany of failures), you haven't seen mass desertions on their part.
So yes, compared to the Ukrainian Army they are fighting, their morale is actually very high.
And as for repairs and maintenance, spend some time on Russia propaganda channels. Among the voluminous thrash you can discard, you'll see vids of the various large field repair centers where yes they do replace on the regular artillery cannon tubes and a lot of parts for a lot heavy stuff they have, not including their own ghanima.
Also, in regards to maintenance, see above commend about arrests.
Moreover, according to various unconfirmed but western sources, 4500+ mechanics've reportedly been hired by the Russian MIC last 3 months. They gotta be working on something don't they ?
And again, Ukraine, if look the large amount of defeatist interviews of western and ukrainian leaders (including their chief of staff), is completely unable to do any of that, and is losing badly.
Modern wars are as much wars of industry as wars of logistics.
It's difficult for me to imagine someone who is willing to do that, able to find them without help, and actually needs to be convinced of anything there.
>Moreover, according to various unconfirmed but western sources
According to a pseudonymous commenter on HN, various unidentified western sources that are allegedly unconfirmed claim that...
I'm not calling you a liar, certainly not - your assertions are so ridiculously weak, it almost comes off as anti-Russian propaganda.
Assuming everything you say is true about Russia, I don't follow what you are saying, if anything about Ukraine's forces in comparison.
Surely, again, anyone who needs to be convinced would have no idea whatsoever what the "defeatist interviews" are.
Russia has more than 200,000 forces in Ukraine right now. Lets not pretend that DPR/LPR "separatists" are anything but Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms. Remember the "separatists" involved in shooting down the Dutch plane in 2014 all turned out to be Russian soldiers.
The total number of combat ready soldiers in Russia's army is also far less than one million. More like 400k-500k.
Could someone who has please confirm to me whether one of those "stops" consists of a veiled promise of increased probability of mating with attractive females, or is the chosen image simply news by association / framing effect on the part of Der Spiegel?
30 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 79.5 ms ] threadIt's also hard to know exactly how desperate for manpower the Russians really are, considering that the US was sending national guard and reserve forces to Iraq throughout the war, and there was plenty of talk of the US Army struggling to meet its recruitment goals.
> Already participating in combat operations in Afghanistan, the National Guard lived up to its motto of "Always Ready, Always There," and answered the call in January 2003 to send troops to Iraq for the beginning stages of what would later be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/576180/the-nation...
To me it seemed very clear and easy to understand. The article summary, right on the second sentence, says in no ambiguous terms "He wants to avoid a general mobilization, so the military is relying on other methods."
The article then goes on how Russia's regime is resorting to very desperate measures to recruit troops, including posting fake general mobilization orders to deceive reservists.
Taken from the article:
> The Russian army is using all means at its disposal to find reinforcements. They are luring them with attractive offers, issuing threats and even simulating a general mobilization by sending out huge numbers of summons to reservists – which some, either out of ignorance or fear, interpret as a call up order.
> But an official call up can only take place once Putin declares a general mobilization. That, though, would be an indirect admission of his army’s weakness, a military force that had been considered vastly superior to Ukraine’s army prior to the invasion. More importantly, a general mobilization would have a more direct impact on the daily lives of Russians, which the Kremlin wants to avoid at all costs. The result has been a kind of veiled mobilization.
'He was initially contacted several weeks before the summons letter landed in his mailbox – in the form of a message sent via the messaging service Viber: Kirill Ivanovich, we are waiting for you, Krasnodarski Krai, 10th Brigade of the GRU Special Forces."'
Uh, did they just expose his real name?
So, no, I doubt they doxxed him.
Unlike in English-centered naming conventions (and probably others, but I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on that), in Russian you dont really choose a child's middle name. It is always just father's name with slight suffix changes based on whether the person is a male (resulting in a -vich ending) or female (-vna ending).
For example, if your first name is Alexey, and you have a son and a daughter, their middle names will be Alexeyevich and Alexeyevna respectively.
Wouldn't doxx him maybe the publication can be notified and rectify, HN is harder once your comment passes the time
Sometimes I think about the time a Holocaust survivor visited my high school and what it means when they are all dead.
Otherwise, what is Russia doing with the other 850,000 soldiers?
Mind you, it's always possible that those other 850,000 guys are on landing barges about to hit the beaches in Louisiana. /s
What they do however is rotate them very often. Reportedly they spend a week at a to,e on the battlefield, then they get rest for a week or two, etc.
This way their entire military gets actual combat experience, the troops are always fresh, and the moral is high. Same with equipment, regular maintenance, etc.
Which is basically why they are able to do the slow grind at the pace they want.
Russia's military, of course, noted for their experience, freshness, and high morale. Along with having properly maintained equipment.
I also think you entire missed the tense of my answer, which is that they are _getting experience_ in the present, while staying freshly rested. Like it or not its a fact. And ever since the first week (when they arrested 450 officers of various ranks for a litany of failures), you haven't seen mass desertions on their part.
So yes, compared to the Ukrainian Army they are fighting, their morale is actually very high.
And as for repairs and maintenance, spend some time on Russia propaganda channels. Among the voluminous thrash you can discard, you'll see vids of the various large field repair centers where yes they do replace on the regular artillery cannon tubes and a lot of parts for a lot heavy stuff they have, not including their own ghanima.
Also, in regards to maintenance, see above commend about arrests.
Moreover, according to various unconfirmed but western sources, 4500+ mechanics've reportedly been hired by the Russian MIC last 3 months. They gotta be working on something don't they ?
And again, Ukraine, if look the large amount of defeatist interviews of western and ukrainian leaders (including their chief of staff), is completely unable to do any of that, and is losing badly.
Modern wars are as much wars of industry as wars of logistics.
I suggest this article by the oldest think tank of them all, which you can hardly accuse of russianophilia: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentar...
It's difficult for me to imagine someone who is willing to do that, able to find them without help, and actually needs to be convinced of anything there.
>Moreover, according to various unconfirmed but western sources
According to a pseudonymous commenter on HN, various unidentified western sources that are allegedly unconfirmed claim that...
I'm not calling you a liar, certainly not - your assertions are so ridiculously weak, it almost comes off as anti-Russian propaganda.
Assuming everything you say is true about Russia, I don't follow what you are saying, if anything about Ukraine's forces in comparison.
Surely, again, anyone who needs to be convinced would have no idea whatsoever what the "defeatist interviews" are.
Russia has more than 200,000 forces in Ukraine right now. Lets not pretend that DPR/LPR "separatists" are anything but Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms. Remember the "separatists" involved in shooting down the Dutch plane in 2014 all turned out to be Russian soldiers.
The total number of combat ready soldiers in Russia's army is also far less than one million. More like 400k-500k.
Could someone who has please confirm to me whether one of those "stops" consists of a veiled promise of increased probability of mating with attractive females, or is the chosen image simply news by association / framing effect on the part of Der Spiegel?