A brand-new field camp for Putin’s newest recruits is currently located in a city in Western Russia that served as a temporary staging place for tanks to advance on Kyiv when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago.
Early in the 20th century, the Soviet Union created the Pogonovo training site on the outskirts of Voronezh, some 170 miles from the Ukrainian border. It was utilized for military training.
Thousands of Russian soldiers were stationed there in February 2022 as they massed around Ukraine’s border, and the region also contained tanks that would later advance as close as 10 miles from Kiev. At the time, the Russian president denied having any plans to invade.
The practice field has been deserted since the first days of the invasion and was only recently covered with pristine frost.
But, recent satellite photos suggest a sizable new camp has been built on the field in only a few weeks. This has increased concerns that Russia plans to unleash a new round of strikes to strengthen its footing in eastern Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Prior to its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia had gathered more than 100,000 soldiers along the border. Huge tank convoys threatened the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital as Putin’s forces quickly won ground in the north-east.
Yet, Putin was gravely mistaken in believing that his “special military operation” would be swiftly concluded with Kyiv making a concession in a matter of days.
According to the most recent estimates from Norwegian intelligence, 180,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been injured or died in the close to a year-long fight.
According to some Western reports, each side of the conflict has suffered 150,000 casualties.
In contrast, from 1979 to 1989, a full decade of warfare in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of around 15,000 Soviet troops.
Because of the significant casualties, Putin stated in September that 300,000 reservists—people with some level of military experience—would be essentially conscripted and dispatched to the front lines.
Instead of reservists in and around Moscow and St. Petersburg, analysts suggest a disproportionately high number of those conscripted were ethnic minorities residing in remote areas of the Russian Federation, and many of them had little to no military experience.
The Russian conscripts who are killed near the front lines are sometimes referred to the Ukrainian troops as “cannon fodder” since they are frequently ill-equipped and poorly trained.
Others are prisoners who have been recruited in Russian prisons to expand the ranks of the Wagner paramilitary force, which Kyiv and its supporters claim is sent on missions that are practically impossible with the equivalent of a gun to their heads.
Videos from the combat zone have often revealed platoons of conscripts whining about the terrible circumstances they are in and pleading with their leaders to provide them even basic equipment.
Today, Ukraine is worried that Moscow may coincide with the anniversary of its invasion by launching another massive wave of strikes.
Russian government expenditure jumped considerably last month, and Ukrainian intelligence authorities warned earlier this month that they believed a significant offensive was impending, indicating the Kremlin may be investing more money in the war effort.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited several European nations earlier in February to urge for long-range weaponry to combat the invaders, Putin’s military leaders have already increased the ferocity of missile strikes in recent days.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, said on Thursday that his country will join the Russian operation in Ukraine “if attacked” first by the army of Kiev.
During a rare news appearance with international media in Minsk, the experienced strongman said, “I’m ready to fight with the Russians from the territory of Belarus in one circumstance only: if so much as one soldier from (Ukraine) comes to our land with a gun to murder my people.”
This is true for all of our neighbors, Lukashenko said. “If they attack Belarus, we will respond in the cruelest way possible.” The cruelest!
In February of last year, the Kremlin used Lukashenko’s nation as a launching pad for its military assault against Kyiv. Lukashenko is a very unpopular ruler who is close to Putin.
While Lukashenko has vowed not to move his military, who are thought to number between 60,000 and 70,000, across the southern border to Ukraine, Belarus still houses an unspecified number of Russian troops.
Despite Lukashenko’s repeated assurances, worries have grown that his soldiers would also step in.
Lukashenko was saddened by the long-time leader’s remark that “I do not intend to deploy my people, my military (there)”.
Moreover, worries have increased that Belarus would declare a mobilization a la Russia.
He did, however, mention that Minsk was testing some of its mobilization skills and was accounting for Russian errors in their drive.
“That won’t happen tomorrow.” But we must nevertheless be prepared,’ he added.
Last month, Putin declared his support for initiatives to establish joint military training facilities with Belarus. Also, the two nations often engage in military drills together.
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