Russia dismissed its logistics manager in the war against Ukraine seven months after the mobilization. This dismissal follows several others that the Kremlin undertook in recent months of senior officials at the forefront of the war intervention.
Russia replaced its highest-ranking military officer in charge of the logistics of the war campaign in Ukraine when seven months into the war in the neighboring country without the Kremlin having achieved its objectives, which it now intends to achieve with partial mobilization and referendums of annexation.
General Dmitri Bulgakov was relieved of his post as Russia’s deputy defense minister because “he received another assignment,” the Defense Ministry succinctly noted.
In his place was appointed Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, until now head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation and who was in charge of “personally directing” the siege of the port city of Mariupol, according to Ukraine.
The Western media baptized him for this as the “butcher of Mariupol”.
This dismissal follows several others that the Kremlin undertook in recent months of senior officials at the forefront of the war intervention in Ukraine, according to British intelligence and analysis centers such as the Institute for the Study of War.
logistical problems
In the last seven months, the West has highlighted the logistical and supply problems suffered by the Russian Army, both in war material and in sending reinforcements to the front.
This difficulty was aggravated when Ukraine began to receive longer-range weapons from the US and Europe, which allowed it to precisely hit lines of communication and transport, command posts and weapons stockpiles, as well as supply and transport routes. withdrawal of the Russian troops.
Especially in the northeastern region of Kharkov, the counteroffensive that ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to cut Russia’s logistics lines.
But also the attacks on pontoons and bridges in the southern province of Kherson, where all withdrawal and supply routes are under Ukrainian fire control, according to kyiv.
All this has prevented Russia from achieving its objectives of liberating Donbas, in which it controls almost the entire pro-Russian region of Lugansk and 55% of Donetsk, and consolidating its position in the south, where it now sees the land corridor that it has tended from the east to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea that was annexed in 2014.
Putin’s recipes to regain the initiative in the war against Ukraine
Faced with the growing criticism of the progress of the military campaign within some levels of power and the military, expressed by military bloggers and regional leaders such as Ramzan Kadyrov from Chechnya and even state propaganda and deputies, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has opted for a new climb.
Now he wants to achieve his objective through the annexation of four regions that he still does not fully control and the partial mobilization that he decreed on Wednesday.
The result of the referendums is already known, according to the independent media outlet Meduza. According to two sources close to the Kremlin, in Donetsk and Lugansk “approximately 90% will vote in favor” of joining Russia, as in Kherson and Zaporizhia.
The annexation, once consummated, will allow Putin to declare that his territory is under attack and therefore he can defend it with all the means at his disposal.
By mobilizing in turn, Putin hopes to calm the “war party” and regain the lost initiative on the battlefield.
British intelligence, however, considers partial mobilization to be a considerable challenge.
“Russia will probably struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of mustering 300,000 reservists. It will possibly try to create new formations with many of these military, but they are unlikely to be effective in combat quickly, ”he noted.
Meduza claims that Russia actually intends to enlist 1.2 million people, as stated in the seventh paragraph of Putin’s classified decree.
Recruit away from the capital
The majority will be recruited in the regions and rural areas where “there are no media or opposition and more support” for the military campaign, according to their sources.
That is why in Moscow only about 16,000 people will be mobilized and in Saint Petersburg approximately 3,200, according to this medium.
According to kyiv, the Russian military is suffering from great demoralization due to the defeats at the front and at home thousands of men who fear receiving an official summons to go to Ukraine have left the country as witnessed by the queues at the borders with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Finland, and at crossing points with Georgia.
Many citizens protested again today in several Russian towns against the partial mobilization. Security forces have arrested hundreds of people.
“Some women cry because they have been mobilized (their husbands, children or parents). I’ve been crying for days. 212 days of tears and pain. It is heartbreaking pain, pain that does not stop,” she said in a video posted on Telegram while protesting in Ivanovo. Her husband Andrey fights in the Ukraine.
Despite the tensions that have begun to arise in society, the head of the Kremlin wants to make sure that his decree is carried out and that there are no desertions at the front.
Harden punishment to deserters
That is why today he signed an amended law that toughens the penalties for desertion, looting and voluntary surrender of soldiers during mobilization or martial law, in time of war or in the conditions of an armed conflict with sentences of up to 15 years in prison. jail.
He also signed a law stipulating that foreigners serving in the Russian Army for at least one year can apply for Russian citizenship without presenting a residence permit.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine, Russia also “forces” citizens in the occupied territories to enlist.
“Hide from the Russian mobilization by any means. Avoid citations. Try to get to the free territory of Ukraine, ”said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening speech.