Russia recently struggled with setbacks in Ukraine. According to a US think tank, Moscow is now increasingly relying on volunteers in irregular units, although they are poorly prepared.
In the view of independent military experts, Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly dependent on alternatives in view of significant losses in his armed forces in the Ukraine war. The Kremlin is increasingly focusing on recruiting ill-prepared volunteers into irregular, improvised units rather than using them as reserves or replacements for regular Russian troops, write analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The experts see one reason for this in Putin's troubled relationship with his own military leadership and the Defense Ministry over the summer, especially after the recent territorial losses. In their counter-offensive in north-eastern Ukraine at the beginning of September, the Ukrainian forces in the Kharkov region advanced as far as the Oskil.
So far there has not been a general mobilization in Russia for the war in Ukraine that has been going on for more than half a year. The army and President Putin are therefore dependent on volunteers. The Russian armed forces also increasingly recruited prisoners, used elements of the Russian security services and covertly mobilized men from the partially occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the ISW report said. The formation of such improvised units will lead to further tensions, inequality and a lack of unity among units. Given their short training, they had "little effective fighting power".
The British Ministry of Defense has ruled that the Russian Air Force is also coming under increasing pressure in the war against Ukraine, citing intelligence findings. In the past ten days, Russia has apparently lost four fighter jets, a total of 55 machines since the attack began in late February, the ministry said.
The spike in casualties may be partly due to the Russian Air Force taking greater risks to provide close-range support to ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances, it said. Added to this is the poor situational awareness of Russian pilots. Some planes got into denser air defense zones because of the fast-moving front over Ukrainian-controlled territory. "Russia's ongoing lack of air superiority remains one of the key factors underpinning the fragility of its operational design in Ukraine," the ministry said.
