The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that Russia intends to recruit hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Moscow wants to start a recruitment campaign from inside Russia and occupied Ukraine to “avoid further unpopular mobilisations,” the Ukrainian General Staff has claimed.
The General Staff said, “A mass forced mobilisation of the population is expected soon in the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine due to the occupiers’ catastrophic losses.”
The British MoD said that there are shortages of workers which is why Putin will use prisoners, adding, the “Russian authorities will likely seek to avoid further unpopular mobilisations”
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Vladimir Putin’s so called “special military operation” in Ukraine has seen at least 300,000 killed in action or wounded.
Ukraine’s top official Andriy Yermak said that Moscow will also recruit prisoners and he described them as “zombies” which will “fuel the madness” for the Russian despot.
The General Staff said that Putin’s campaign target could be between 400,000 and 700,000 more recruits and that the number of Russian to be recruited from Moscow and St Petersburg will be “minimal.”
The General Staff gave the statement after Ukraine’s senior spymaster said there is around 420,000 Russian forces operating inside Ukraine.
The New York Times said that an unnamed US official has claimed almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, the true extent is not known as Moscow treat their losses as state secret.