Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

shavenferret said:

A couple of reports of really bad morale on the russian side, when btw they are gearing up for an offensive:

1. https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/245930/russia-and-ukraine-flashpoint/626/
A largely anecdotal article citing a few individual russian soldiers who are calling the war a total mess

2. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-troops-disappearing-en-masse-in-kherson-resistance-group/ar-BB1lv3l0?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ASTS&cvid=44b9d96e8b514bfbb7e4ee40b72af929&ei=78
Reports of large numbers of Russian troops going AWOL. If things are this bad when Ukraine doesn't have enough ammo, what will happen when the supplies and F-16s come in? Putin has to be very unhappy right now.

Probably why they announced another round of recruitments for 400k soldiers.

As a side note, Russia's unemployment is already below 3%, so recruiting 400k more soldiers will negatively affect their economy, and not just the civilian one. As such, I don't think Russia will be able to keep up their military production levels once these recruitments have started. The drop might not be very large, but that will still matter in the long run.

I wonder how many of those soldiers who go AWOL try to get recruited into the Freedom of Russia Legion or other such Russian brigades on Ukraine's side. I suspect their numbers will only grow over time when Russian soldiers will grow more and more disillusioned about the war.