A report in The New York Times is horrifying:
Russia’s Draft Sends Barely Trained Men to War in Ukraine.
Newly mobilized recruits are already at the front in Ukraine, a growing chorus of reports says, fighting and dying after only days of training
Neil MacFarquhar reports that men mobilized to replace the heavy losses suffered by Russian forces in Ukraine are facing grim circumstances. The link should allow access to the article; here’s how it starts:
A half-dozen Russian soldiers talk about being shipped to an area of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine just 11 days after their mobilization. Asked about his shooting practice, a bearded conscript says, “Once. Three magazines.”
In a town near Yekaterinburg, in central Russia, newly mobilized men march in place in their street clothes. “No machine guns, nothing, no clothes, no shoes,” says an unidentified observer. “Half of them are hungover, old, at risk — the ambulance should be on duty.”
Elsewhere, scores of relatives of freshly drafted Russian soldiers crowd outside a training center, passing items through its fence to the recruits — boots, berets, bulletproof vests, backpacks, sleeping bags, camping mats, medicine, bandages and food.
“This is not how it’s done,” a woman named Elena told the news outlet Samara Online. “We buy everything.”
Read the whole thing — if you can stand it.
While the official line is that the draftees are fully equipped, are adequately trained, and are eager to face the enemy, the reality is quite different. The Russian military training system did not survive the fall of the Soviet Union; the stresses of the invasion have only made it worse. The need for more Russian boots on the ground has some stark numbers behind it.
The number of Russian troops in Ukraine remains murky. An estimated 200,000 soldiers were deployed for the invasion, but Western intelligence agencies say that anywhere from a third to one half have been killed or wounded.
emphasis added
There have been numerous reports of needless brutality and outright war crimes being committed by Russian forces. Updates here at Daily Kos have repeatedly mentioned how they are poorly trained, poorly led, and poorly supplied. The article suggests it is only getting worse — and there’s at least one report of resistance.
An extreme sign of disorder came on Saturday, when two men from a former Soviet state opened fire at a Russian training camp. They killed 11 volunteers and wounded 15 before being shot dead, Russian outlets reported.
MacFarquhar concludes with this:
For the moment, however, with thousands of recruits pouring into Ukraine, it appears that the Kremlin is emphasizing quantity over quality. Or, as Mr. Norberg put it, citing a Russian expression, “Not with skill, but with numbers.”
emphasis added
Describing Putin as a butcher does not seem unreasonable given these circumstances. Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” might have been paraphrased by Putin to justify the invasion of Ukraine and the way Russia attempted to carry it out. For all that we can celebrate the efforts of the Ukrainian people to resist the Russian invasion, we should not blind ourselves to the stark reality that war is a horror — even for those winning.
The only surprise is just how badly Putin’s own forces are being treated by their own country as they are fed into the meat grinder. The corruption and incompetence is proving impossible to hide from the Russian people — which is why so many attempted to flee the country. The question is how long this can continue before Putin and those around him suffer comparable consequences. History is not reassuring on that point.
This song from Liam Clancy does as good a job as any of conveying the horrors of war, based on a particularly horrible bit of history from World War I.
UPDATE: I see many comments on how powerful “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is, but for my own part I find Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” even more compelling. I am surprised that is not getting as much attention in comments. I suspect TL;DR may be a factor.
I urge taking time to read Twain’s original words — which were only published after his death. It was written by Twain in response to American actions in the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War. It is a powerful work and has been dramatized several times. I’m including a video adaptation; if the opening reminds you of rallies being carried out by certain types, that’s possibly not a coincidence. Mark Twain’s own comment on The War Prayer is telling.
"No, I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead."