Summary
Vladimir Putin ordered the conscription of 160,000 men—the largest draft since 2011—despite ongoing U.S.-mediated ceasefire talks with Ukraine.
The move raises doubts about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of using talks to buy time for battlefield gains in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine claims Russia intends to escalate the war, citing forced contracts for conscripts. Losses remain high on both sides, with Russia reportedly losing over 100,000 troops in 2024 alone.
Yeah, but how many 18-40 year old men are still in rural Russia that haven’t already been fed to the meat grinder or were lucky enough to get out of the country first?
Sooner or later these conscriptions are going to hit bigger cities, although they’ll likely be used to backfill non-combat positions while others are sent to Ukraine. But even that can go on for only so long…
At least 5 million, depending on how you define rural russia and how skewed the gender & age structures actually are.
Population of russia is 143 million, 35% of which are between 18 and 44, half of which are men. That comes to 50 million, 20% of who live outside the European Russia, bringing the final count to 5 million.
And as only 21.5 million people live in the Moscow metropolitan area, so if everything outside that is counted as rural you’d have over 20 million.
In both cases the issue is logistics, equipment and training, not the lack of bodies to throw in the grinder.