Russia has no regard for casualties in its invasion of Ukraine. According to a media report, the military leadership in Moscow is planning a war that will last for years. In doing so, it is said to wantonly send hundreds of thousands of poorly trained reservists to their deaths.
According to a report, the Kremlin calculates that 100,000 more reservists will be killed in order to continue the war against Ukraine. As reported by the investigative Russian online magazine "Important Stories", mobilized forces at the front are to be used as cannon fodder before a new offensive can be launched. Accordingly, the Russian military leadership is planning a war that will last for years to come.
The portal relies on two informants who are said to be close to the domestic secret service FSB and the Russian General Staff. According to them, the army leadership predicts that a total of 100,000 reservists, whom Putin recently mobilized for the war, could fall by the summer of next year. A new offensive, in which conscripts are to be used, is planned for spring 2023. In addition, Putin is sticking to his plans to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The approximately 300,000 men who were sent from their Russian homeland to Ukraine as part of the partial mobilization at the end of September have hardly been prepared for their combat mission, as several sources have been reporting for months. In fact, according to the report, apparently nobody expects them to survive long in combat. "In general, the plan is something like this: buy time and stabilize the front with the help of those who have been mobilized. And then start all over again in the spring," said one of the two sources, according to "Important Stories".
According to them, both the political and military leadership of Russia is aware that such a plan implies heavy casualties. "By the spring of next year, the number of dead and wounded could be around 100,000," the person is quoted as saying. However, that does not deter anyone, since the dead would be replaced by conscripts.
This information was confirmed by a source in contact with the General Staff. "Now it's about sealing and securing the front line." The distances between the individual battalions, some of which were kilometers long, would first have to be filled by those who had been mobilized. By the spring of next year, the Russian Defense Ministry plans to train 120,000 conscripts who can be sent to Ukraine to offset expected casualties among those mobilized.
The US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) analyzed at the end of October that Russia would use conscripts in Ukraine in the coming year. By May 2023, the men who were recruited in the fall should have completed six months of training and be deployed in large numbers.
Not only experts, but also Russian professional soldiers warn that mobilized without military training leads to high losses at the front. "This is an unprepared army!" the Russian online portal "Meduza" quoted a contract soldier as saying. He also said that the reservists' chances of survival were very low because some of them were only trained for a week.
During the war, which has lasted for almost two years, Russia suffered heavy defeats in the Kharkiv, Lyman and Kyiv regions. Only a few weeks ago, the Kremlin's troops had to withdraw from the strategically important area of Cherson. According to US Army General Mark Milley, more than 100,000 Russian forces have been killed or injured since the war began through early November this year. The same applies "probably to the Ukrainian side," said Milley.
