Putin’s decree did not specify whether the expansion would be achieved by expanding the military, recruiting more volunteers or both. But some Russian military analysts predicted a greater reliance on volunteers because of Kremlin concerns about a possible domestic backlash from an expanded camp. The move will boost Russia’s armed forces to a total of 2.04 million, including 1.15 million troops. Western estimates of Russian dead in the Ukraine war range from more than 15,000 to more than 20,000 – more than the Soviet Union lost during its 10-year war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon said last week that up to 80,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded, eroding Moscow’s ability to launch major offensives. The Kremlin has said that only volunteer contract soldiers are taking part in the Ukraine war. But more willing soldiers may be hard to come by, and military analysts say planned troop levels may still be insufficient to sustain operations. Retired Russian colonel Viktor Murakovsky said in comments carried by the Moscow-based online news agency RBC that the Kremlin would likely try to continue relying on volunteers and predicted that would account for most of the increase. WATCHES | Ukrainians still defiant after 6 months:
On the ground in Ukraine 6 months after the war
Six months after Russia’s invasion began, Ukrainians remain defiant, but also weary — especially those who have lost so much in the conflict. Another Russian military expert, Alexei Leonkov, noted that training in complex modern weapons typically takes three years. And draftees serve only one year. “A draft will not help with this, so there will be no increase in the number of lottery tickets,” Leonkov was quoted as saying by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine operate 21 sites used to capture, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians, according to a new report by Yale University researchers supported by the US State Department, as part of efforts to hold the Moscow. The report, seen by Reuters ahead of its release on Thursday, cites commercial satellite imagery and open-source information to identify with “high confidence” the individual locations — including facilities that once served as schools, markets and regular prisons. The Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health that authored the report is a partner in a US State Department-funded Conflict Observatory launched in May to capture and analyze evidence of war crimes and other atrocities allegedly committed from Russia to Ukraine. Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said the findings showed Russia and its proxies had set up a “filtering system” to sort people into Russian-held areas, which was a “human rights emergency rights”.
Possible mass graves
The lab also identified possible graves at a prison complex near Olenivka, where 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were reportedly killed in an explosion on July 29. The Yale researchers detected disturbances in the earth consistent with individual or mass graves as early as April, the report said, matching the account of a former inmate who said inmates were forced to dig graves at the time. Although the investigators did not reach any conclusions about the fate of the Ukrainian prisoners of war in the prison, they also confirmed that other riots in other parts of the complex were occupied on July 27, before the explosion in Olenivka. The New York Times previously reported unrest at the complex in July. In this satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies, a view of the Olenivka detention center, in eastern Donetsk province, following an attack that reportedly killed Ukrainian soldiers captured in May. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies/The Associated Press) “The conditions are absolutely ripe for extreme abuse and in many cases, as we saw in Olenivka, we see indications that we may have a five-alarm fire,” Raymond said, adding that it was not known how many civilians passed through or were still being held at the sites. Russia’s defense and foreign ministries and its embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Children among 25 killed in Russian attack
In Ukraine, the death toll from a Russian rocket attack on Wednesday – as the country celebrated its independence day – rose to 25, including an 11-year-old boy found under the rubble of a house and a six-year-old killed in a car fire nearby at a train station that was the target, the Ukrainian official said Thursday. Russia’s defense ministry said its forces used an Iskander missile to hit a military train carrying Ukrainian troops and equipment to the front line in eastern Ukraine. The ministry claimed that more than 200 reservists were “destroyed on their way to the combat zone”. People stand next to a residential house destroyed by a Russian military strike on Wednesday in Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. (Dmytro Smolienko/Reuters) Ukraine’s deputy chief of staff, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, did not say whether the 25 casualties he reported from Wednesday’s attack were all civilians. A total of 31 people were injured, he said. The deadly strike in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, served as a painful reminder that Russian military might is inflicting suffering on civilians and testing Ukraine’s resilience after six months of intense war. The strike at the train station came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow might attempt “something particularly tough” this week as Ukraine marked both its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and the six-month anniversary of the invasion. of Russia on Wednesday. Tetiana Kvitnytska, deputy head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional health department, said those injured in the attack suffered a range of injuries. “There are head injuries, broken limbs, many patients with injuries from explosives and shrapnel, burns,” he said. “People were in a difficult situation, both physically and psychologically.” “Now our efforts are focused on the children who suffered. We are working with four children. Three of the four children are in a serious condition. In addition to severe stress, they have blast and shrapnel injuries, burns and fractures,” Kvitnicka said. “The children are in serious condition.” The Russian government has repeatedly claimed after attacks in which civilians were killed that its forces were only targeting legitimate military targets. Hours before the train station attack, Russia insisted it was doing everything it could to spare civilians, even at the cost of slowing its offensive in Ukraine. LISTEN | Gloomy independence day for Ukraine: The Current19:28 On a bleak Independence Day, determination to win stronger than ever, says Ukrainian MP Today marks six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s Independence Day — although celebrations have been banned due to fears of a Russian attack. To hear how the day is marked and how the war is unfolding, guest Nora Young talks with Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze and David Marples, Distinguished Professor of Russian and East European History at the University of Alberta.
