Dire state of Putin’s aging army laid bare in line-up of brand-new employees

Photos from Russia shows the desperate measures Putin has been reduced to in order to recruit additional troops to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian leader recently announced the conscription of 300,000 extra soldiers to go and fight in Ukraine.

But recent pictures from Sevastopol in Crimea show groups of men – many of whom appear to be well into their 50s and 60s and of questionable fitness – clutching their weapons as they prepare to head to the frontline.

The advanced age of the new recruits has drawn comparisons from some to the classic BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, in which men who were too old to fight abroad in World War 2 were instead drafted to defend the homeland.

Putin’s ‘partial mobilisation’ of the armed forces caused mass panic in Russia when it was announced earlier this month, with thousands attempting to flee the country or find loopholes to let them avoid military service.

Those who were recruited have since complained of subpar equipment and an almost complete lack of training as Moscow desperately seeks to rush the new bodies to the frontlines in order to defend their territory against Ukraine’s rapid counterattack.

Modern militaries tend to spend a minimun of ten weeks training new recruits. Russia meanwhile has since said conscripts will receive just two weeks’ worth of training before heading off to war. 

And in a video posted to Telegram by legal rights group Perviy Otdel, a newly mobilised Russian soldier claims his unit will be sent into the warzone with even less training then that.

‘We were officially told there would be no training before we are sent to the war zone,’ said the new recruit, clad in a fresh military uniform.

‘On Sept. 29 we will be sent to Kherson,’ he added. ‘The regiment’s commanders confirmed it.’

At the same time, additional footage has emerged on social media of a Russian officer telling new recruits what to expect when they reach the frontlines- and the results sound particularly bleak.

‘I say right away if you are near the fire, you are f***ed,’ the female instructor says, before reeling off a list of items recruits will need to acquire by themselves before entering the war zone.

‘Take sleeping bags with you, you will sleep where you have to.’

When a soldier asks if they get anything else, the female officer responds: ‘All the army provides you with is uniforms and armour. There is nothing else.’

Elsewhere in the video, she advises new recruits to cobble together their own first aid kits.

‘All this also applies to medicine,’ she said.

‘Diarrhoea tablets, hydrogen peroxide, tourniquets. I don’t have enough tourniquets for you.

‘Ask relatives to send. Gut car first aid kits and take medical tourniquets from there.

‘Guys, don’t laugh: ask your wives, girls, mothers for pads. The cheapest pads and the cheapest tampons. Do you know what the tampons are for? 

‘You stick it right in the bullet wound and that’s it,’ she added.

‘The tampon begins to swell and closes the wound. Guys, take care of yourselves if possible, please.’

One clip reveals brand-new soldiers being required to sleep on the flooring; and in another a commander confesses he was pulled from his getaway and has no concept about devices, products or where the system will be sent out.

The absence of training and low spirits within the militaries is most likely to expense Russia countless lives, according to Ben Hodges, a previous leader of the U.S. Army inEurope

‘It is criminal to send untrained soldiers into combat… it’ s murder,” Hodges informed independant Russian outlet The MoscowTimes ‘I doubt these men will survive very long.’

‘The war will now increasingly be fought on the Russian side by people who do not want to be there,’ tweeted Rob Lee, a military expert at the Foreign Policy ResearchInstitute

The distinction in spirits, system cohesion, and other crucial aspects in between Ukrainian and Russian systems will grow even higher,’ he stated recently.

Elsewhere on the frontlines, unofficial video has actually seen Russian soldiers equipped with rusty AK-47 s as the technological space in between Kyiv and Moscow continues to grow.

Earlier today, a Russian officer was shot by a shooter at a recruitment station in Moscow who ended up being angered at the Kremlin’s conscription efforts.

Following Putin’s mobilisation speech recently, ‘how to break your arms at home’ and ‘how to leave the country’ were the 2 most-googled expressions in Russia.

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