More about the US Armed Forces
“Bottom line, it’s not going to change many of the problems the Russian military has had in this war, and the military will be limited in how many additional forces it can deploy in the field,” Mr. Kofman said. “But it starts to address the structural problems that Russia has had with the lack of manpower and will expand Russia’s ability to sustain this war.” Crucially, Mr. Kofman said, Mr. Putin’s announcement indefinitely extends the service contracts of thousands of soldiers who signed on thinking they would serve only several months and establishes policies and sanctions to prevent them from refusing to deploy to Ukraine or leave the service. Even if Moscow can quickly mobilize some reserves, the Russian military faces serious long-term shortages of equipment, vehicles and weapons, and the creation of entire new units to replace those lost in combat may not happen until early next year. some officials said. “It will be many months before they can be equipped, trained, organized and deployed in Ukraine,” said Frederick B. Hodges, former top US military commander in Europe. “And without massive artillery support, these new soldiers will be pure cannon fodder, sitting in cold, wet trenches this winter as Ukrainian forces continue to push.” Mr Putin’s struggles to mobilize enough regular troops have forced the Kremlin to rely on a patchwork of impoverished ethnic minorities, Ukrainians from the separatist territories, mercenaries and militarized National Guard units to fight the war.
