Military specialists take part in military exercises at the Sergeevskyi training ground outside the city of Ussuriysk, Russia, on September 6, 2022.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
The first Russian conscripts have arrived at military bases, a UK intelligence briefing said.
Putin’s new troops will be provided with “low-level initial training,” the intel briefing said.
As a result, they will suffer a “high attrition rate” in Ukraine, it added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new troops will suffer heavily in Ukraine as they will have basically no training, UK intel said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a Monday intelligence update that the first wave of Russian conscripts arrived at military bases across the country, and that officials now face the “logistical challenge” of providing training for them.
The Russian military will supply “low-level initial training” to the soldiers, but will struggle to find military commanders to conduct the training because the majority have already been deployed in Ukraine, the update said.
“The lack of military trainers, and the haste with which Russia has started the mobilization, suggests that many of the drafted troops will deploy to the front line with minimal relevant preparation,” the British update said.
“They are likely to suffer a high attrition rate,” it added.
Putin announced a partial military mobilization last week, pledging to call up 300,000 people, but only from Russia’s existing pool of military reservists. The new decree will affect only those with combat experience, officials said.
His announcement was largely seen as a sign of the failure of Russia’s military in Ukraine so far.
The intelligence update reflects another report from Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces on Sunday, which said that some draftees do not undergo any military training before being sent to the front.
But despite their lack of training, Ukrainians are still concerned about Putin’s recent announcement.
“Of course, it is bad news for us,” a member of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces told The Financial Times.“Even if they [Russian conscripts] don’t have motivation, they’ll have a gun.”
In his nightly address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said called on Russian soldiers to “not submit to criminal mobilization.”
“Flee. Or surrender to Ukrainian captivity at the first opportunity,” Zelenskyy said.
“We see that they are beginning to understand that this is a question of their lives. Why should their husbands, brothers, sons die in this war? In a war that one man wants,” he added.