Faced with humiliating reversals in a war he seemed to think would be over in a week (it's been more than seven months) and on which he has staked his increasingly tattered reputation, Putin saw no option but to double down. So, the Kremlin announced a 'partial mobilisation' of up to 300,000 reservists which will presumably tip the scales in his favour. Before going into what actual difference this deployment will make, let's examine why it was needed to begin with.
The war started with almost everyone expecting the Russian army to walk all over Ukraine, and capture Kyiv fairly early, causing a wider collapse of the Ukrainian resistance.
However, the paratrooper operation intended to quickly seize the Hostomel airport failed, and while this was initially written off as a temporary setback, the approach of a 60-kilometre-long Russian military convoy was touted as the force before which the Ukrainians would be helpless.
That convoy, slowed by mechanical breakdowns, lack of discipline and zero strategic guidance, never reached its target and ultimately dispersed. The inability to establish air superiority meant that Russia could not use the brutal tactics it employed in Chechnya, and more recently in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Idlib, which were effectively bombed into rubble to crush resistance.
This story is from the September 27, 2022 edition of The Statesman.
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This story is from the September 27, 2022 edition of The Statesman.
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