Russia 'Likely' Looking To Call Up More Conscripts And Reservists To Replace Losses

The UK's Ministry of Defence has suggested Russia may be looking to mobilise conscripts and reservists to replace military losses it has suffered in Ukraine.

Despite Russia's silence on the matter, it is largely believed that the country has suffered significant losses in both personnel and equipment in the month since Vladimir Putin launched his 'military operation' in Ukraine.

An apparent accidental publishing of figures earlier this week revealed 9,861 soldiers had been killed and 16,153 injured, and though the toll has since been removed it falls in line with Western estimates suggesting Russian casualties are in the thousands.

As Ukraine yesterday marked one month since the invasion began, the Ministry of Defence released an update in which it stated that Russian forces 'have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties during their invasion of Ukraine'.

It continued: "Russia is now likely looking to mobilise its reservist and conscript manpower, as well as private military companies and foreign mercenaries, to replace these considerable losses. It is unclear how these groups will integrate into the Russian ground forces in Ukraine and the impact this will have on combat effectiveness."

The MoD's update comes after a senior defense official in the US told reporters on Tuesday that they had 'assessed that for the first time that the Russians may be slightly below a 90% level of assessed available combat power.'

The official stressed the figure referred to 'the combat power that they assembled in Belarus and in the western part of their country prior to the invasion' rather than an assessment of 'all Russian military power.'

They went on to say at the time there were 'no tangible indications of reinforcements being brought in from elsewhere in the country, no tangible indications of foreign fighters that have flown into the country' and 'no tangible indications that they are making an effort to resupply' from around Russia, but officials do 'continue to see indications that they are having these discussions, and that they are making those kinds of plan both in terms of resupply, and also reinforcement.'

On Wednesday, NATO estimated 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers had so far been killed in Ukraine, with the upper end of the estimate making the losses equal to the number of troops Russia lost over a period of 10 years in Afghanistan.

These figures, a senior NATO military official said, were based on information from Ukrainian authorities, releases from Russia and intelligence gathered from open sources.

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