Putin is running out of soldiers and resorts to an “army of grandfathers” who retired 10 years ago

The Russian Federation has 768,000 soldiers in its active forces and another 1,578,573 in the reserves. It is the fifth largest army on the planet. Despite this, he is having trouble replacing tired soldiers after nearly three months of war in Ukraine. And he is resorting to what is known in military jargon as “the army of grandfathers”, the oldest reservists. They are the ones who left active service more than ten years ago. And more are over the average age of 45 that is considered the limit for the soldiers who are in action in the front, beyond the high officers.

Also they are forcibly recruiting among Ukrainians from the occupied villages of southern and eastern Ukraine. They are based on “laws” of the enclaves that have been in the hands of pro-Russian forces since 2014. Two weeks before the February 24 invasion, the pro-Russian leader of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, ordered a “general mobilization” of men to fight against the Ukrainian military forces. Many young people went into hiding or fled to the West, but now they are being “hunted” by the occupants. “The mobilization is everywhere, at bus stops, supermarkets, markets… cars are stopped and the military takes the driver to serve in the Russian army”, told Mari, a resident of Mariupol, on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that Moscow was trying to “reinforce the number of troops with personnel discharged from military service since 2012″. In the invasion, he used approximately 80% of his total available, trained and combat-experienced ground force of 150,000 personnel. Thousands of messages from men complaining about having received a notification to report to their barracks as soon as possible appeared in chats and social networks in the last few hours. “I am 44 years old, I stopped being a soldier in 2012, I cannot leave my wife and children, my career. I haven’t trained for 9 years. What do they want me for? Dimitri wrote in a military chat quoted by the Kyiv Independent.