Vladimir Putin’s projecting the image of a shirtless, swaggering, Botox-filled imperialist who cannot be stopped, but behind the scenes, his Ukraine war logistics aren’t going well. Amid increasing global sanctions against Russia, Putin’s been secretly funding his disastrous war by stealing gold from Sudan, and a reported half of the Russian army has been killed or injured during the Ukraine invasion. Troops also threatened to blow up their general, and Putin’s in need of fresh blood (both literally and metaphorically).
The massive number of Russian casualties has made Putin so desperate for battlefield bodies that he’s turned to prisons to fill the gaps. Never mind that Putin’s troops are also going to jail after refusing to fight for their leaders’ “total disregard for human life.” Over 100 of those soldiers expressed frustration and feeling appalled by their commanders’ tactical blunders, so it’s awfully convenient that Putin’s using prisons as a revolving door to fuel his war.
According The Mirror, Russia’s finding willing recruits because he’s pilfering from notorious “hell hole” prisons, and The Independent details how Putin has no other choice, lest he start recruiting from the general Russia population:
Vladimir Putin is recruiting convicts from Russian jails to fill gaps in his fighting force in Ukraine left by “incredibly high” fatalities and injuries, Western officials believe.
It is thought that the Russian president is turning to prisoners and private military companies because of a fear of political opposition in Russia if he attempts to draw on the wider population with a general mobilisation.
Life in Russia already isn’t fantastic right now. On a superficial front, the McDonald’s replacement isn’t going well, and that’s only one of countless companies who now refuse to do business there in light of Putin’s imperialistic invasion. On a more serious front, Russian military wives are fed up and demanding answers about what has happened to their husbands, and Putin appears to want to eliminate such questions in the future by recruiting prisoners who (sadly) probably won’t be missed. And the war appears to have no end in sight, so expect things to get more dismal, but at least Putin has vowed to not resort to using nukes, so that’s something.
(Via The Mirror & The Independent)