The move on Wednesday marks a U-turn in Ukraine’s approach on the matter. Kyiv had long opposed the measure and had repeatedly criticised Moscow for mobilising prisoners to fill its ranks.
Tsvily said he feared the creation of “special units” for mobilised soldiers would lead to abuse against prisoners.
“It’s like in Russia – redemption by blood. … Anyone willing to fight will be put in one unit and commanded like meat,” he said.
“Hopefully they won’t be turned into cannon fodder like Russia did to their prisoner soldiers.”
Spoiler alert, they will be.
All Infantry is cannon fodder to some extent, but so far Ukraine’s casualty numbers for their deployed personnel have been a lot better than Russia’s.
I hope they can maintain that track record.
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The official count released recently by the Ukrainian government was 31k, vs Russia’s totally believable 6k dead on their own side.
I will happily concede both have incentives to misrepresent their casualty numbers but the difference between Ukraine’s official death toll and the estimates you see from military analysts have a much smaller discrepancy than the official reported losses and independent analysis on the Russian side.
But hey, you believe what you want to believe. We’re all still free to disagree.