New Strategy Center publishes a new study, this time looking at Russian troop morale, using information from open sources, mostly Russian social media. Wage issues and delays regarding the fulfillment of material compensations for those wounded or killed on the front, the poor state of weaponry, the insufficient quantity of ammunition, the attitude of the command corps towards the soldiers sent to the front following the last mobilization, the impossible missions that new recruits have to perform, which become real suicide missions, the growing discontent of the families left behind in Russia, enhanced by the accounts of soldiers on the front describing the conditions in which they have to fight, all these elements provide information that helps us to build up a more accurate picture of the morale of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian front.
The heavy losses on the front are most likely compelling the Russian authorities to decide embarking on a new mobilisation in order to regenerate the lost human resources. As in the First World War, Russia has the capacity to mobilise hundreds of thousands of servicemen, but lacks the ability to provide them with decent frontline conditions, in terms of equipment and food, but especially weapons and ammunition.
A new Ukrainian offensive is expected on the front soon. Beyond the equipping of the belligerents or the mine planting carried out by the Russians to fortify various segments of the front, which will play an important role in the dynamics of the forthcoming confrontation, a decisive element will be the fighting spirit and morale of the Russian troops. These can be the catalyst for a Russian military collapse that will astonish with its scale and speed.
This New Strategy Center study is authored by George Scutaru, CEO of New Strategy Center and former presidential advisor on national security, Ecaterina Dadiverina and Marcu Solomon, experts at NSC.