The Kremlin is fighting to strengthen the Russian military, Washington says

Russia’s military is struggling to recruit amid its conflict with Ukraine, seeking volunteers even in prisons, with new recruits often “old, in bad shape and poorly trained,” a senior Pentagon official said Monday.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin last week ordered a 10% increase in Russian military strength, or 137,000 troops by January 2023.

But “this effort is unlikely to succeed,” the official, who requested anonymity, told reporters, explaining that the Russian military has historically struggled to meet its recruitment targets.

Before the invasion of Ukraine, the United States estimated that Russia’s military strength was 150,000 short of its stated goal of one million troops in February 2022.

Since then, Russia has tried to send professional soldiers to the front rather than by force, but the conflict has been costly in terms of human and material resources.

“Russia has already started recruiting more people to form at least one volunteer battalion per district and augment the Third Army Corps,” she said. “They did this by removing the age limit for new recruits and recruiting prisoners.”

“We notice that many of these new recruits are old, in bad shape and poorly trained,” she concluded. “All of this suggests that the new recruits that Russia will attract by the end of this year will not increase the country’s fighting strength.”

After failing to capture Kyiv early in the intervention, Russian forces are now focusing their efforts in eastern and southern Ukraine, where fronts have moved little in recent weeks.

The Kremlin has so far refrained from proceeding with a general mobilization, which many Russians fear.