Vladimir Putin suffered significant losses in the war in Ukraine. He needs new soldiers and workers. President Addresses Women of Russia
As Russia continues to suffer heavy losses in the Moscow-Ukraine war, it is scrambling to find new soldiers in its own country. At the same time, Western sanctions are causing economic problems in Russia. Additionally, Vladimir Putin is clearly isolated in international politics. But the Kremlin ruler is confident of victory. In a recent speech, he also addressed the women of Russia – with a request that seemed surprising at first glance.
“Our task in the coming decade is to save and multiply the Russian people. I will say more – for the coming generations. This is the future of the Russian world and the thousand-year-old, eternal Russia,” Putin said loudly. Toss Tuesday in a video message to a gathering called the World Council of Russian Peoples, an organization under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. From a German perspective, they are words reminiscent of a dark period in our own history.
Putin talks about “thousand-year-old future of Russia” – and addresses women
In a speech against the backdrop of heavy losses in the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin called for Russian women to have up to eight children. The Russian president spoke about the generation of grandmothers and great-grandmothers. They will have seven, eight or more children. “Let’s preserve and revive these great traditions,” he was quoted as saying Business Insider From Putin’s speech. Large families must become the norm, the Kremlin ruler demanded, because the family is not only the foundation of the state and society, but also a “spiritual phenomenon, a source of morality.”
But it seems questionable whether the President’s appeal will be heard. A group of Russian women have expressed growing discontent. Wives of Russian soldiers have issued an appeal accusing Putin of “treason” and “empty promises” against his own people over partial mobilization for war in Ukraine. British intelligence calls open criticism of Russia’s actions “significant”.
Putin’s statements come at a time when Russia’s birth rate has been declining for decades. Putin, who took office 24 years ago, has been trying to increase the birth rate. To this end, he introduced some government incentives such as payments to families with more than one child. However, these measures were almost never successful.
Putin has been plagued by personnel problems — the war in Ukraine and Russia
So Putin’s statements are not entirely surprising. But they also show that Russia is currently suffering from major personnel problems.
According to an investigation by Exile magazine, there are wars in Ukraine Medusa By the end of May 2023, 40,000 to 55,000 Russian men under the age of 50 had died. If you include those injured too badly to return to military service, the figure rises to at least 125,000 soldiers. Also: these figures do not include missing or captured soldiers or Ukrainian citizens from the occupied territories fighting for Russia.
Ukraine’s losses and mass exodus hit Russia hard
NATO expects even bigger Russian losses in Ukraine. According to the defense coalition, the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded now exceeds 300,000. “Militarily, Russia has lost a significant part of its conventional forces,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday after an alliance meeting in Brussels with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. This includes hundreds of planes and thousands of tanks. At the same time, Stoltenberg cautioned against placing too much faith in losses that would quickly end the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a high tolerance limit when it comes to victims, Norway said.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin not only lacks military personnel, but also lacks manpower in Russia itself. “There is no manpower in Russia,” Alexey Raksha, a demographer who previously worked at the Rosstat statistics institute, told AFP. This is an “old problem” that has been exacerbated by the mobilization for war in Ukraine and the resulting mass exodus. Mainly well-educated youth are leaving the country. Rashka estimates that nearly 150,000 people left Russia in February and March 2022 alone, shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. After Putin announced the mobilization in September, another half a million followed, the expert said. (wrist)
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