Putin to replenish forces as losses mount
Russian leader orders 137,000 troop buildup
KYIV, UKRAINE •Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a major buildup of his country’s military forces Thursday in an apparent effort to replenish troops that have suffered heavy losses in six months of bloody warfare and prepare for a long, grinding fight ahead in Ukraine.
The move to increase the number of troops by 137,000, or 13 per cent, to 1.15 million by the end of the year came amid chilling developments on the ground in Ukraine:
❚ Fuelling fears of a nuclear catastrophe, the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the middle of the fighting in southern Ukraine was cut off from the electrical grid after fires damaged the last working transmission line, according to Ukrainian authorities. The incident caused a blackout across the region. The plant was later reconnected to the grid, a local Russian-installed official said.
❚ The death toll from a Russian rocket attack on a train station and the surrounding area on Ukraine’s Independence Day climbed to 25, Ukrainian authorities said. Russia said it targeted a military train and claimed to have killed more than 200 Ukrainian reservists in the attack Wednesday.
Putin’s decree did not specify whether the expansion would be accomplished by widening the draft, recruiting more volunteers, or both. But some Russian military analysts predicted heavier reliance on volunteers because of the Kremlin’s concerns about a potential domestic backlash from an expanded draft.
The move will boost Russia’s armed forces overall to 2.04 million, including the 1.15 million troops.
Western estimates of Russian dead in the war have ranged from more than 15,000 to more than 20,000 — more than the Soviet Union lost during its 10-year war in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said last week that as many as 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, eroding Moscow’s ability to conduct big offensives. The Kremlin has said that only volunteer contract soldiers take part in the Ukraine war. But it may be difficult to find more willing soldiers, and military analysts said the planned troop levels may still be insufficient to sustain operations.
Retired Russian Col. Viktor Murakhovsky said in comments carried by the Moscow-based RBC online news outlet that the Kremlin will probably try to keep relying on volunteers, and he predicted that will account for the bulk of the increase.
Another Russian military expert, Alexei Leonkov, noted that training on complex modern weapons normally takes three years. And draftees serve only one year.
“A draft won’t help that, so there will be no increase in the number of draftees,” the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Leonkov as saying.
Fears of a Chornobyl-like disaster have been mounting in Ukraine because of fighting around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the site. It was not immediately clear whether the damaged line in Thursday’s incident carried outgoing electricity or incoming power to operate the plant, including the vital cooling system for the reactors. Ukrainian authorities said a backup power line using electricity from another, non-nuclear plant remained connected and was in use.
Zaporizhzhia’s Russian-installed regional governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, claimed that a Ukrainian attack caused the fire that damaged the transmission lines. Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, blamed “actions of the invaders.” While the incident apparently didn’t affect the reactors’ cooling systems — whose loss could lead to a meltdown — it stoked fears of disaster.
The United Nations is seeking access to the plant and has called for the area to be demilitarized. IAEA officials are “very, very close” to being able to visit Zaporizhzhia, agency Director-general Rafael Grossi said on Thursday.