Very interesting. I'm surprised that the minimum age is 22... I'd think 18 would be sufficient and that it would give them more cannon fodder. So this is shaping up to be the Mother of all Wars when the final offensive happens.
I don't know if this recruiting in prisons is desperation or determination. The Bear has been poked so many times by so many global factions that maybe it's equal parts of both.
I read once that at the outset of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets were sending in anyone they could mobilize (recruits, prisoners, conscripts) and there was only enough rifles for 1 in 10 at the outset; the rest were to take up rifles from the fallen or from killed or captured Germans, until sufficient rifles could be sent to them.
Well, if this video is out there, Putin likely wants it out there. Perhaps he wants others to THINK he's desperate by recruiting prisoners. When you are strong, appear weak.
Could be. I'm not taking from the video that recruiting prisoners is an act of solely desperation, but more like Putin's way of telling the world, "We are in it to win it." And that means every possible asset will be activated. You're right, the very fact that this video got out to the West is telling, in and of itself.
When you think of Ukraine's forces being made up now of males pressed into service and not wanting to be there, and they see that not only battle hardened veterans are coming for them, but also hardened criminals, the Ukrainian conscripts must be totally demoralized now. And maybe THAT was the purpose of the video being released.
… the film is full of extreme close-ups of faces, does not flinch from the unpleasant details of burnt flesh and bloodied corpses, and the guns were often loaded with live ammunition as opposed to blanks. Kravchenko mentioned in interviews that bullets sometimes passed just 4 inches (10 centimeters) above his head (such as in the cow scene). Very little protection was provided on the set. When the dive bombs were detonated the camera crew only had a concrete slab 1.5 meters tall and 5 meters wide to protect them.…
Thanks, I had not heard of that movie. Just reading the Wiki page about it is interesting. Yes, the 20th Century certainly did hone and industrialize the killing machines of war, the worst of which is the human factor.
Very interesting. I'm surprised that the minimum age is 22... I'd think 18 would be sufficient and that it would give them more cannon fodder. So this is shaping up to be the Mother of all Wars when the final offensive happens.
I don't know if this recruiting in prisons is desperation or determination. The Bear has been poked so many times by so many global factions that maybe it's equal parts of both.
I read once that at the outset of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets were sending in anyone they could mobilize (recruits, prisoners, conscripts) and there was only enough rifles for 1 in 10 at the outset; the rest were to take up rifles from the fallen or from killed or captured Germans, until sufficient rifles could be sent to them.
Now THAT is determination.
Well, if this video is out there, Putin likely wants it out there. Perhaps he wants others to THINK he's desperate by recruiting prisoners. When you are strong, appear weak.
Could be. I'm not taking from the video that recruiting prisoners is an act of solely desperation, but more like Putin's way of telling the world, "We are in it to win it." And that means every possible asset will be activated. You're right, the very fact that this video got out to the West is telling, in and of itself.
When you think of Ukraine's forces being made up now of males pressed into service and not wanting to be there, and they see that not only battle hardened veterans are coming for them, but also hardened criminals, the Ukrainian conscripts must be totally demoralized now. And maybe THAT was the purpose of the video being released.
Try to find this movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See
…no one was killed.
Thanks, I had not heard of that movie. Just reading the Wiki page about it is interesting. Yes, the 20th Century certainly did hone and industrialize the killing machines of war, the worst of which is the human factor.