Putin seeks more soldiers for his war in Ukraine: he will forgive the debts of those who enlist in the Russian Army

 

The law signed by the Kremlin chief provides for the cancellation of up to 10 million rubles ($95,835) in late payments to those who sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense.

Vladimir Putin signed a law on Saturday that will forgive debts for new Russian army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin website.

Agencies reported that the law provides for the forgiveness of up to 10 million rubles ($95,835) of overdue debts for those who sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense to fight in Ukraine for at least a year, starting December 1.

The law applies to all potential recruits against whom debt collection proceedings have been opened before December 1.

Russia has stepped up military recruitment by offering ever-increasing payments, in some cases several times the average salary, to those willing to fight in Ukraine.

The tactic has allowed the military to increase its troops in the conflict zone, while avoiding another round of general mobilization like the one that caused a mass exodus from Russia in September 2022.

Figures show that Russians are taking on more and more consumer debt since the Kremlin ordered tens of thousands of troops to be sent to Ukraine in 2022, even though the central bank raised its official interest rate to 21% in October.

The UK intelligence services indicated last Thursday that Russia's ground troops are "a totally different force" to those that began the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and have stressed that most of the troops currently deployed "have minimal training."

"Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia tried to build a modern and professional force capable of carrying out complex operations. After a thousand days of conflict, Russia's ground troops are a radically different force to those that invaded Ukraine in the first place," they said.

They explained that the “more than 700,000” casualties suffered in combat, including dead and wounded, “have drastically undermined the quality of the Russian forces,” according to a statement published by the British Ministry of Defense through its account on the social network X.

“The majority of personnel currently serving in the Russian Army have received minimal training, while Russian commanders use basic tactics to achieve progress, despite the high casualty rates associated with them,” they said.

Along these lines, they assured that Russia has lost to date more than 3,500 tanks and 7,500 armored vehicles, while Moscow has had to resort to vehicles “from the legacy of the Soviet Union” to replace losses in clashes with Ukrainian troops.

North Korean troops

Meanwhile, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday he expects thousands of North Korean troops sent to Russia to “soon” go into combat against Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence estimates there are about 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk border region, the defense secretary told reporters during a stop in Fiji, a small Pacific nation. “Based on how they’ve been trained, the way they’ve integrated into Russian formations, I fully expect to see them in combat soon,” he said.

Austin said he had not seen “significant reports” of North Korean soldiers “already actively in combat” to date.

Senior South Korean government officials and a research group said Thursday that Russia had supplied North Korea with oil, anti-aircraft missiles and economic aid in exchange for the troop shipments denounced by Washington and Seoul.

kyiv has warned that Russia, with North Korean soldiers, has massed a force of 50,000 men to recapture parts of the Kursk region taken since August by Ukrainian forces.

In addition, the head of the Central Intelligence Department of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andri Kovalenko, said on Saturday that some North Korean soldiers were also transferred to the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.

“Some soldiers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were transferred to the border of the Belgorod region,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram, and stressed that “they are not in the Kharkiv region,” as some American media had reported based on Ukrainian sources.

Información de Infobae