Video images circulated on independent Russian websites showing the chaotic path of mobilization. At the assembly point, reservists were called by an officer to arrange their sleeping bags. “You get a uniform and a shield, and I don’t have anything else,” the officer says. “You have to bring your things.”
There are also no anti-diarrheal medicines or pressure pads (to stop bleeding). “Ask your wife or mother about sanitary towels and tampons,” is the advice. “Do you know why you use a tampon? Pushing it if you have a gunshot wound will make it swell and stop the bleeding. I’ve known that since[the war in]Chechnya,” the officer says.
огилизация идёт строго по плану.
елокс? ет, ампакс.
икеты? ет it.
актические аптечки? ет, автомобильные. pic.twitter.com/lsqoTyWavp– еновый Брянск (HuBryansk) September 26, 2022
In another video, one of the called-up reservists said they were told they would be sent to the front immediately. “No training, no goal, no theory, nothing!” , notes angrily. A woman from Lipetsk told the news site Nastoyashi Frimja Her husband received a call at five in the morning last Thursday. At 07:00 he informed the recruiting office, at 10:30 he was already on a bus heading to the border region, and on Sundays he was sent to the front in the Donbass.
It is said that the first new reservists have already been captured by the Ukrainians. A Ukrainian website showed photos of a 45-year-old man from Moscow who was sent to the front near Kobyansk, where he immediately fell into the hands of the Ukrainians.
Grozny hell
The situation is reminiscent of the beginning of the war in Chechnya in the 1990s, when Moscow also sent barely trained soldiers to the front. Young Russian captives said that they had only been on duty for a few weeks, firing only a handful of bullets, before being sent to the inferno of Grozny. There, the first Russian troops, who were completely unprepared for the city war, were crushed.
To prevent frustrated Russian reservists from heeding Ukraine’s calls to lay down their arms and surrender immediately, the Russian parliament last week imposed harsh sanctions. Those who surrender unnecessarily could face up to 15 years in prison. Refusal to serve in the military for 10 years.
However, military experts question whether Russia will be able to fill in the gaps left by the heavy losses its forces in Ukraine recently incurred on the front line. “You cannot fight iron with meat,” says a Ukrainian military expert, who put his trust in Western weapons acquired by the Ukrainian army.
The Kremlin plans to call up more than 600,000 men over the next three months, at the head of the first round of about 300,000 reservists, according to independent Russian media, but this seems impossible given the lack of equipment and widespread protests against the crowd.
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