Russia’s chaotic draft leaves some out in cold, without gear

Kyiv, October 26

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The mobilised reservists that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited last week at a firing range southeast of Moscow looked picture-perfect.

Kremlin video of the young men headed for war in Ukraine showed them in mint-condition uniforms, equipped with all the gear needed for combat: helmets, bulletproof vests and sleeping bags. When Putin asked if they had any problems, they shook their heads.

That stands in stark contrast with the complaints circulating widely on Russian news outlets and social media of equipment shortages, poor living conditions and scant training for the new recruits.

Since Putin announced the mobilisation on September 21, independent media, human rights activists and those called up have painted a bleak picture of a haphazard, chaotic and ethnically biased effort to round up as many men as possible and push them quickly to the front lines, regardless of skill, training and equipment.

Videos on Russian social networks showed conscripted men complaining of cramped, filthy accommodations, toilets overflowing with trash and a lack of food and medicine. Some showed men displaying rusty weapons.

In one video, a group of draftees milled in a field, claimed they had been left there with no food or shelter. Other clips depicted men forced to sleep on bare benches or tightly packed on the floor.

“We didn’t seek you out; you called us. Here, look at this! How long can this go on?” an exasperated voice says in a video.

Putin’s decree on the partial mobilisation didn’t outline the criteria for draftees or say how many would be called up.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has said it will affect only about three lakh reservists with relevant combat or service experience.

Conscription protests have been harshly put down, and tens of thousands of men fled Russia to neighbouring countries to avoid being pressed into service.

In the week after the decree, a young man opened fire on a recruitment officer in the Siberian city of Ust-Ilimsk, seriously wounding him.

On October 15, a shootout at a training camp in the southern Belgorod region killed 11 people and wounded 15 others. Enlistment offices and other administrative buildings also have been set on fire.

It’s now clear that in a country where almost all men under 65 are registered as part of the reserve, the mobilisation process wasn’t carried out carefully.

Luzin, the military analyst, said Russia isn’t able to train hundreds of thousands of men. “The army was not ready for mobilisation. It never prepared for it,” he said.