In recent days, Russian President Putin announced a partial mobilization, and the news that recruited 300,000 troops were used to strengthen Russia's military strength has attracted the attention of global media. Observers from different countries have made different interpretations of this from different positions and perceptions.
But one problem that few people notice is that according to the data released by Russian Ministry of Defense , since February this year, Russia has suffered less than 6,000 casualties in the entire special military operation. Even if according to Ukrainian statistics, the number of casualties in Russia is tens of thousands, but 300,000 people were recruited in one go. Why did Moscow make such a big move?
Some people may say that with Ukraine's counterattack in the Kharkiv region, the nature of the Russian-Ukraine war has changed, the scale of the war is inevitable, and the risk of the so-called "military action" becoming a full-scale war is increasing rapidly. It is natural for Russia to start large-scale recruitment in order to cope with this change.
This idea makes sense, but it is certainly not the entire reason for such large-scale conscription in Russia. The reason is very simple. After more than half a year of war in Russia and Ukraine, the Russian army certainly suffered some combat reductions, and the Ukrainian army would definitely be more serious. Now everyone is suffering from residual blood, and Russia's losses are even smaller. The previous failure in Kharkov region is not so much a lack of military strength, but rather a strategic mistake.
To put it bluntly, the Russian army was deceived by Ukraine. They thought that the direction of Ukraine's counterattack would be the southern Khlsong . As a result, the person counterattacked from the Kharkiv area and caught Russia off guard.
Furthermore, a more important problem is that Ukraine's counterattack has begun, and Russia has only begun to recruit troops now. It will take at least a few months to use the troops currently recruited to deal with Ukraine's counterattack.
Then the question arises. Even though he knows it is too late, why did President Putin still have such a big fight to recruit soldiers? And it's 300,000? This issue actually needs to be understood from both Russia and abroad.
First of all, from Russia's own perspective, the biggest problem facing the Russian army at the moment is actually not the problem of insufficient troops, but the decline in the morale of the army. First of all, Russia has always insisted on defining this war as a "special military operation", which restricted its own hands and feet, resulting in only 200,000 contract soldiers being able to enter the battlefield.
war has been fought for more than half a year, and this army has basically never rested. According to military tactics, long-term warfare will lead to fatigue, and the Russian officers and soldiers who insist on fighting in the eastern Wu region have long been exhausted. What disappoints them even more is that they can’t see the time to rest.
The reason is obvious. If Russia has always defined war as a "special military operation", then the number of troops available is these 200,000 people. No matter how they change their defense, they must continue to fight.
, such an army that does not see hope for a truce, is not easy to last for more than half a year. Therefore, the most urgent task of Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense is not to put the newly recruited troops into the battlefield, but to give hope to the Russian officers and soldiers who are already on the battlefield.
Understand this point, and then understand why Putin supports the "public referendum" in the four regions of eastern Ukraine and eastern Ukraine, and at the same time recruited 300,000 new recruits in one go. The reason is very simple. Such a large-scale recruitment and the "identity" of putting these conscripts into battle are to tell those Russian troops who are still on the battlefield that as long as they can survive until this wave of new recruits form combat effectiveness, they can all rest.
This will immediately improve the morale of the Russian army. Secondly, from the perspective of Russia and abroad. Since Ukraine launched a large-scale counterattack in early September, Russia's failure in Kharkov has given Western countries "hope". They have begun to increase their support for Ukraine and hope that Ukraine will win the war.
At this time, Russia must use an action to destroy the hope of Western countries and force them to the negotiating table.There are only two possible methods. First, win a hearty victory at the battlefield level, offsetting the negative impact of Ukraine's counterattack against Kharkiv.
But at present, it is difficult to implement this method, and once it is not done well, it will become a negative example. Russia dares not take this risk.
The second method is to express the national will of Russia's battle to the end through large-scale mobilization. The gap in national strength between Russia and Ukraine is obvious. The only hope for Ukraine to win is that Russia is unwilling to invest all its national strength in this war. Otherwise, even with the support of Europe and the United States, Ukraine will definitely not be able to win. The West is clear about this.
Now Putin announced that Russia will mobilize partly and directly recruit 300,000 troops, which is undoubtedly to convey to the West that Russia is willing to invest more power in order to win this war.
This will is conveyed, and the West must consider continuing to support Russia and Ukraine to continue to fight, forcing Russia to mobilize comprehensively. After the national war, how will they end? Correspondingly, the hope of supporting Ukraine to win Russia will naturally be shattered. In fact, this has been confirmed. Germany and France have begun to play Tai Chi on the issue of aiding Ukraine in recent days.
To sum up, the Russian army's recruitment of 300,000 is certainly the meaning of escalating the scale of the war, but the most direct factor is actually to use this recruitment to boost the morale of the Russian army and put pressure on Europe and the United States, rather than really planning to fight a national war with Ukraine, or even fight a NATO world war with .
