The Kremlin’s chilling military expansion despite major losses on the battlefield alarms the west – and now Putin is even planning to provide debt relief in a bid to boost troops numbers
Desperate Russian President Vladimir Putin is launching the Kremlin’s biggest troop call up for more young men to fight in Ukraine’s ‘meat grinder’ frontline in over a decade – 160,000 more raw recruits to boost his military.
He is so keen to expand militarily he has even offering to wipe out debts for many men in exchange for just a year’s service on the Ukraine frontline. But with so many losses in Ukraine, Russia is running out of possible recruits, especially since hundreds of thousands fled at the beginning of the war. The huge expansion comes after he has lost possibly 840,000 men in battle and well over 10,000 tanks, killed and blown up by Ukrainian forces.
Across Europe, governments are debating how to expand or introduce national service to prepare for war and piling extra funds into defence spending. It comes as the Kremlin ended their lull in deadly drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilians, with a drone onslaught on Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.
Devastating waves of drones smashed into the city causing multiple explosions, fires and injuries, which included hitting a nine month old baby. Putin signed a decree authorising the latest phase of the country’s twice-yearly conscription effort, with the new window beginning Tuesday and running until July 15.
It will see 160,000 men aged 18 and 30 join Russia ’s armed forces – an increase of 10,000 on last year’s spring drive, and a rise of more than 15,000 compared to three years ago. In another effort to boost military numbers, Putin signed a law last year offering debt forgiveness to new army recruits willing to serve in Ukraine.
Under this legislation, those who sign up for a one-year contract can have bad debts of up to £75,000 written off, a provision that also extends to the spouses of new recruits. Meanwhile, in February, Ukraine introduced new financial incentives to attract more men aged between 18 and 24 to military service.
This new scheme offers a one-time signing fee of £20,000 plus a monthly salary of £2,500 to join the country’s fight to repel Russia. The conscription push is caused by Putin’s efforts to increase the size of Russia’s military as a whole.
His country had one million military personnel three years ago, but now has around 1.5 million, despite so many having been killed, as the world becomes more tense. But the new push also comes at a vital crossroads in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Moscow has been relying on assistance from North Korean soldiers to push back Kyiv’s advances in the Kursk region of Russia. It has been steadily advancing on the ground in eastern Ukraine, while the US attempts to broker talks that would end the conflict. North Korea recently sent 3,000 more soldiers to help Russia fight the war in Ukraine, even as peace talks are underway.
Russian troops have continued sustained attacks in the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk in recent weeks, and have launched aerial assaults against Ukrainian cities. Putin has not only rejected Trump’s recent call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine but also added conditions – including the lifting of US sanctions.
But progress for the Kremlin has been slow and at huge cost, losing many men to Ukraine’s superior drone teams on a daily basis. Some sources suggested Russia has been losing as many as 1,000 men a-day.
