On October 14 Vladimir Putin revealed that 16,000 newly-mobilized men were already in combat. Since mobilization was decreed on September 20th that means the men could have had at the most 24 days of (refreshment) training.
However, Putin explained that some of them received as little as 5 days of basic training followed by as little as 5 more days of training once they joined their permanent unit:
Putin replied that after being drafted, the mobilized undergo primary training in “formation units”, which takes from five to 10 days, after which training in a combat unit follows from five to 15 days. Then the soldiers are already sent to the troops taking part in the hostilities.
In his own words then Putin explained that some mobiki are in combat after 10 training days (others have up to 25 days).
This is something that I expected would happen. I wrote when mobilization was proclaimed that:
“There is a certain number of troops (20,000-50,000) whom are needed urgently and who can do more good untrained right now, than trained but three months from now.
It is something that under the circumstances is not a blunder. Both because with so much of its personnel from the land combat arms committed to the war, Russia doesn’t necessarily have amazing training to give to the mobiki in the first place. And also because that is simply what the needs of the front are at the moment.
Nonetheless, after its constant 7-month crap about how “everything is proceeding to plan” and how regular citizens would not be sent to fight, the Kremlin can not possibly be let off the hook for now inserting regular citizens into combat after just 10 days of refreshment training.
Yes, this is the right call in these circumstances. But who is it that allowed the circumstances to get so bad that this sort of a desperation move is necessary? Let’s get something straight, inserting men into high-intensity combat after 10 days may be correct, but it is not normal. This is some African-level of travesty here.
Let’s be clear about what happened here.
Ukraine is not the Third Reich. The Kremlin picked a fight with a state that is 4 times smaller than Russia, and then waited so long to make a necessary but iffy decision, and allowed things to get so bad, where it now has to throw thousands of regular Russians into combat after 10 days of training to save its ass.
Russia did not find itself under a surprise invasion by Nazi Germany. The Third Panzer Army is not gazing at Moscow spires from Klin. No, this is supposedly a leisurely “Special Military Operation”, not even worth calling a war. Yet now thousands of blue-collar Russians have to go and put out the fires after being prepared for the insanely complex and lethal job for 10 days.
The reason this is so preposterous is just how predictable this was, and how easily it could have all been avoided.
I wrote in March, less than three weeks into the war, that a different leader might at this point admit to the failure of SMO and announce the start of a national effort right there and then:
Launching a halfway war has already proven a mistake. Reassuring the nation that the war can continue to victory as a halfway effort without greater Russian mobilization and sacrifices could prove to be another.
A different leader might have opted to tell the nation this was a critical moment for the war and that an all-national push was needed to end this quickly. Putin has chosen the opposite.
In April I wrote that delaying sending in citizen soldiers (at the time I was talking about serving conscripts rather than mobiki) was just going to make their situation all the more difficult when they finally have to be sent in anyway:
The Russian government is also acting like there is no urgency to the war. As if whether Russia springs into action today, 6 months from now, or 2 years from now doesn’t make a difference.
I have never seen anything so feckless.
…
[T]he Kremlin stubbornly refuses to fight an actual war. The Russian effort is clearly crying out for manpower. At the same time there isn’t even a partial mobilization, there isn’t retention of conscripts, there isn’t even deployment of conscripts to Ukraine. The army has literally been told to treat one-third of its manpower as untouchable and to leave it at home.
…
What will be said of Putin’s “humanism” if months from now conscripts nonetheless have to be sent in, but it’s a new batch that isn’t as well trained (the current one isn’t being retained) and only to face a larger, more experienced and reequipped Ukrainian army?
Where is the mercy of standing by as Ukrainian forces reform and expand, and only moving decisively many months into the war after the West has been allowed ample time to ensure the fighting will be of the utmost intensity?
…
[T]he enemy is being given ample time to build up its force, only after which Moscow will start using Russia’s draftee soldiers.
Exactly right.
If the narod was tapped for this war in April when Russia was still (glacially) advancing and before Ukraine had expanded and reconstituted its military capacity, this effort could have been far more effective and been leveraged for more. The citizen-soldiers would have had the far easier job of maintaining momentum rather than be placed in a position where they now have to extinguish urgent fires and turn the tide against an enemy that has been allowed ample time to grow. Moreover, if this was done in April they could have had the “luxury” of receiving an actual fucking training.
This is a war that is 8-months old, that was in the making since spring 2021, and that relates to a conundrum that has been apparent since at least 2004, and yet the Procrastinator-in-Chief allowed things to get to where the situation has to be bailed out by sending people into high-intensity combat after 10-day refresher courses! Has there not been ample time to plan and to prepare to handle things in a way that is less costly for Russian blood?? Is this a joke or what? If you purposely set out to mess up things as badly as this you probably could not engineer this crisis. A monkey picking options at random would have to do better than this.
And it’s against effing Ukraine!! The 404 banana republic, failed state, oligarch-captured, corruption heaven, identity crisis, cargo-cultist Ukraine! It is against this entity that you allowed yourself to fall into a position where you have to feed the front with men after 10 days of training as if it were 1941 again and you’re Stalin fending off Guderian’s spearheads! How in the world did you manage that?? That takes extra special talent!
Another thing. That mobilization will only affect individuals who have already served as contract soldiers or more likely as conscripts performing their mandatory 1-year national service is not a saving grace of the mobilization. It is the most preposterous aspect of the whole thing.
Russian draft is mandatory and universal on paper, but in practice one-third dodges the process altogether, mostly by bribing a doctor or paying to remain a fictional student until they become too old for the draft.
So what this means in practice is that everyone who successfully dodged the first time now has nothing more to worry about. Only the underprivileged who already pulled the short straw once before are eligible!
By rights, the mobilization should only affect those who dodged and have yet to serve! Why should those who have already contributed contribute once again, when some have not even done it for the first time?
Let the Kremlin round up the former and present “eternal students” and form Shock Armies to terrorize the svidomy and NATO! They are already great at dodging things so perhaps they will require even fewer than 10 training days.
And let them be led into the fray by the sons of Peskov and Medvedev. Covered by drones piloted by Putin’s daughters. There was once a tradition of state service in Imperial Russia. A noble couldn’t hope to see high office or high honor without first having at least briefly served in the military, and preferably having won some small glory. Something that they chased after bravely as even the war-cynic Tolstoy attests to. Not the worst tradition ever. Putin styles himself something of a traditionalist. He can start by restoring this one.
True – If they tried to sabotage Russia they couldn’t do better than this. Are they still supplying gas to NATO so it can produce weapons to kill Russians and then paying the nazi’s so they can kill more ? A few missiles to Hezbollah would have stopped this war years ago but even Russia’s own troops have to crowd fund for basic equipment. Moscow is wall to wall Bilderberg and zionist “Youth leader” Putin talks nice but does the opposite of what he says. If someones words don’t match their actions then you close your ears and open your eyes and I dont like what i see. I don’t trust Moscow. What if it’s deliberate.
This ^
Young Russian men are being sent to death or dismemberment by so-called “leaders” who continue to make money supplying the very countries waging war against them. It’s Satanic.
Yes, fecklessness seems to have characterized the Russia Army almost forever.
Listening to audiobooks on the Eastern Front in WW I. The sheer lassitude, incompetence and sloth that characterized the Russian high command is unbelievable. Just getting to Brusilov’s innovative 1916 offensive, but that was almost the only bright spot, and even it had limited impact in the larger scheme. The Russian Army gained great prestige in 1813-15 against Napoleon at the end of the pre-industrial era. But the failures of the Crimean and Russo-Japanese Wars showed how lethargic the Russian state and military had become.
Putin knew that the army needed massive reform after the Chechnya experience, but he was aware that very little was being done, a view confirmed by the shambles of the 2008 operation in Georgia. He brought in a new Minister of Defense, Serdyukov just prior to the Georgia War, who tried to implement reform against the opposition of the army. Then, seeking bureaucratic peace, Putin replaced Serdyukov with Shoigu in 2012, with the reforms only partially enacted at best.
I guess little has happened since then.
It’s amazing how consistently difficult it has been for the Russia state to create and sustain a competent military structure. I suppose a big part of that is the prestige the army gained during WW II, the disasters of which have always been kept veiled in Russia.
It is amazing that Russians, as clumsy and incompetent they are, managing to destroy ukie army and infrastructure to oblivion. The other side must be hopeless beyond belief.
Anyway, Kiev regime is also announcing fresh wave of mobilization, we’ll see how it will go. Man and woman 18-60 are all called, training is few days. That must go well for sure. Poor people.
The only question is will the ladies be forced into combat, or are they taking roles from men in the back line supply chain and guarding roles?
Though most of the time Marko seems to be able to score multiple bullseyes where others fail to even hit the board, when he turns to the topic of ‘feckless’ incompetence and imputed ‘failures’ at the top, the arrows go seriously awry!
The idea that Putin et al are failing due to ‘incompetence,’ or inability to adjust to on the ground realities is a non-starter. Backing up to the point of initial premise check is required here. Static fictions cherished by generations of Russians(and Russophiles)need a proper burial at last – before any correct analysis can leave the starting gate.
The folks who presented the evidence that “Hitler Was a Russian Agent” were always treated as ‘beyond fringe’ by the geniuses who continue to buy into the notion that ‘history’ is a series of random events with built in immunity to organized manipulations by ‘special interests.’ The work of Corporal Schicklgruber on behalf of his Soviet paymasters during & after the “Bavarian Republic” interlude is well documented and beyond denial. Yet the entirety of ‘orthodox’ historiography – both “eastern” & “western” versions, is based upon that steady denial so as to maintain mass obliviousness to the ever present ‘elephant in the room.’
This pleases the people who love to pit “Anglo-American Imperialists” against bizarrely-construed “Bolshevik Defenders of Christianity” LLC in an ongoing cage match which satiates the need of dupes east & west for “team sport” bread n circus. As Douglas Reed famously noted – back when real journalism was still allowed –
“In any case Jewish emissaries from Amsterdam were
urgently despatched to England to discover whether Cromwell might be of
Judaic decent! Had their research yielded positive results, Cromwell might
have been proclaimed the Messiah, for he had one qualification most
appealing to the elders: his zeal in ‘utter destruction.’ (If ever a Messiah
should be proclaimed, the choice may prove surprising; when I was in
Prague in 1939 a rabbi there was preaching that Hitler was the Jewish
Messiah, so that a worried Jewish acquaintance asked me what I thought of
this.)
… the signs of both “Hitler’s” & “National Bolshevism’s”[as National Socialism/Nazism was originally known]affinity to Putin & Co’s irredentist campaign to increase confrontation between puppet empire’s of the $power are abundant and ‘in the clear.’ Unfortunately, it seems that only when the eastern marches of Europa are turned entirely into the new playground of the inheritors of Sabbatai Zevi’s culture war will otherwise bright students of warfare and history – such as Mr Marko –
wake up and smell the “kovfefe!” Many thousand(millions?)of dead victims of Slav on Slav bloodsports later.
Killer quote from Bjerkne’s “Adolf Hitler – Bolshevik and Zionist” to close with:
“Several neo-Nazis have since embraced National Bolshevism in the modern
era as it evolved under the direction of Vladimir Putin’s political advisor,
Alexander Dugin. The affinity between National Socialism and National
Bolshevism remains alive under the direction of the KGB/FSB and Putin”
Now back to the pablum-fest!.
“The idea that Putin et al are failing due to ‘incompetence,’ or inability to adjust to on the ground realities is a non-starter.”
That’s really two issues:
1. Are the Russians failing (or will they fail)?
2. Has there been demonstrable incompetence and inability/unwillingness/difficulty in preparing for this war and adjusting to its reality in execution?
Also, not sure why discussion of any or all of that would be a non-starter.
—war has always been un-natural selection —the scum lived and prospered (and propagated); the best and the worst died (without progeny)
>>>> “Russian draft is mandatory and universal on paper, but in practice one-third dodges the process altogether, mostly by bribing a doctor or paying to remain a fictional student until they become too old for the draft.
>>>> “So what this means in practice is that everyone who successfully dodged the first time now has nothing more to worry about.”
The Scum of Mother Russia, idolizing American Culture, mainly residing in Moskau and Leningrad, Slavs to the last gene-sequence, have left the principality of Muscovy and infested Gruzia, Mongolia, Finland, &c. No border-guard prevented them from leaving, they were not charged with evading service, their citizenship was not revoked. ….. (will they be allowed to partake in the victory celebration at Red Square ?)
The captive audience and lesser Slavs, from Sahalin to Rostov, have to fill the vacancies left by dead and crippled Luhansk-Donetsk conscripts and contract soldiers.
In a recent episode of the Russian-language version of Amerikano cultural television, a Slav true-believer dared to suggest that new year’s and other revelries should be curtailed in Moskau and Leningrad —in consideration to the people killing themselves on the battle-fields. He got a response Morton Downey, or even Springer & Povich would’ve been impressed with. Let the muzhiks and the kolhozniks do their thing down south, we want bacchanalia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNEvKejdQMA
It would really be beneficial if the Ukrainians could send high-yield flying objects to outlets of MacTochka in Moskau and Leningrad when those places are filled with these America-idolizing Pan-Slavs. —you want fire-works, choke on this quarter-pounder
>>>> “And let them be led into the fray by the sons”
And Olga and Margarita could be drafted as comfort nurses
Interesting comment.
The international class is the same everywhere.
And almost everyone knows it.
This is why it’s so hard to motivate anyone to serve in the military when the going gets rough.
Right now, the US Army has significant recruiting shortfalls even in what passes for peacetime these days. And as soon as Iraq got a bit dicey in 2004 or so (though only in a relatively low-casualty sort of way,) stop-loss (mandatory extension of military service) had to enacted.
What is worth fighting for and maybe dying for or getting maimed for in this brave new world?
The author, apparently, still believes that Putin and his clique are good guys. Misguided and indecisive , perhaps, but, essentially good people who care for an average Russian.
Major mistake.
So it seems, yes.
War is a terrible thing and anyone searching for “good guys” in order to throw his weight is a delusional ideologue.The fact is that the imperialistic west is following the path of Hitler to the east,with the ukrainians larping as waffen SS and NATO as the greater reich.That’s that.No good guys,no slavic kinship,no orthodox faith,no nothing else.The existence of the russian STATE(i emphasize that)and several others,like Belarus,is what is at stake,and everyone understands this.Especially when he pretends not to understand and bullshits everyone with “unprovoked Putler”,hippie bulsh*tery or anything that simply looks the other way while “our”guys do the dirty job.
So the question is if the DISSOLUTION of RF a la Yugoslavia,or Libya is benneficial to the common man,the proletariat,or whatever you want to call it.I think it is not.I think that it is historically neccesary for NATO to be DEFEATED and be DISSOLVED.I think that a NATO victory will only make things worse for anyone safe perhaps the so called 1% and some of its cronies.
Convid is another matter and it is NOT related.
A) The poor almost always get drafted in higher numbers in most any war.
B) 10 days may be enough because they are are taking troops who had served before.
C) While fighting a “failed state”, this “failed state” has plenty of people to draft, a constant stream of new armaments and funds, NATO Officers/ S.F./ Mercs. The sentiment is they have not much more to lose even if that is incorrect.
D) RF point man /Generalissimo for the War on the RF side is talking about “tough decisions” ( retreat?) in certain areas. Then he talks on about how the the 2 countries are are “one people”. Indeed this is historically accurate to a great degree, but sometimes the worst fights are often between related people ( think the U.S.A. VS. the C.S.A., Spanish Civil war, Multiple English Civil Wars, etc.).
E) A faint ( or a real attack) on Kiev will likely not produce the panic the first effort did. The Ukrainians have the fresh memory of forcing the RF back, and might actually be looking forward to attempting to do it again.
Excellent points, all.
The only way to effectively kill ukrowehrmacht is the full assault and the systematic DEVASTATION of the spiritual centre of the banderites,which also happens to be their lifeline with the NATOland:Galicia.
Yes, Ukraine will have to feel pain if it is to be driven to the peace table.
The Clown World, for all its shortcomings, tends to create tests which, instantly, tell a lot about a person.
Like taking, voluntarily, Clovid boosters..
Like thinking, believing, that sending Russian reservists into combat, as we see, isn’t a crime.
Agree, completely.
If it makes you feel any better.
https://en.topwar.ru/203721-vladimir-putin-proveril-hod-podgotovki-mobilizovannyh-na-odnom-iz-voennyh-poligonov-zvo.html
It may seem a purely symbolic gesture, but I don’t think it should be underestimated that the people in charge of equipment/training see that Putin is paying attention. That could be motivation to not screw things up, or worse commit any sort of fraud.