As the Institute for the Study of Wars (ISW) announced in its latest report, Moscow is trying to recruit volunteers for its armed forces instead of directly enlisting them.
According to The Kyiv Independent Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that Russia wanted to “make contract service as preconditional as possible.” Russian President Vladimir Putin therefore signed a decree granting state life and health insurance to all citizens who volunteer for combat missions in Ukraine. The new law is to apply retroactively to all who volunteered for military service from the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By doing so, the Kremlin hopes to avoid another disastrous round of forced mobilization, according to ISW. Those attempts sparked protests and political unrest last fall. As a result, Russia has tried a number of other recruitment tactics, including raising the maximum age for conscription and appealing to “male pride.”
Commander’s speech removed from social media
In addition, ISW reported that a speech by Russian Air Force Commander Mikhail Teplinsky, in which he reported on Russian casualties in Ukraine, was removed from state media by the Defense Ministry. In it, Teplinski said that at least 8,500 members of the Russian Air Force had been wounded since the war began. ISW noted that this was “a rare official disclosure of Russian losses, which Russian officials largely sought to conceal during the war.”
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Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin in Ryazan Oblast (2022-10-20) 06, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)