Russian authorities continue to send newly-mobilized and undertrained recruits to directly reinforce severely degraded remnants of various units, including units that were previously considered to be #Russia’s premier conventional fighting forces.
2/ The Ukrainian General Staff reported that newly-mobilized Russian men arrived to reinforce elements of the 1st Tank Regiment of the 2nd Motorized Rifle Division of the 1st Guards Tank Army in unspecified areas of Ukraine with no training at all. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
3/ Social media footage from September 27 shows a Russian soldier mobilized into the 1st Tank Regiment explaining that he will be sent to fight in #Kherson Oblast within two days without any basic training, as @TheStudyofWar reported yesterday.
Ukrainian military officials largely maintained operational silence regarding specific actions in #Kherson Oblast but stated that Ukrainian troops are continuing positional battles in unspecified locations to consolidate and improve their positions. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
2/ Russian forces continued routine artillery, air, and missile strikes west of Hulyaipole and in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts on September 28. Russian and Ukrainian sources reported that Russian forces struck Mykolaiv City and Zaporizhzhia City.
3/ Ukrainian sources reported that Russian heavy artillery and Grad rocket strikes damaged critical infrastructure in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
Ukrainian forces likely continued to make significant gains around #Lyman on September 28, advancing from the north along the Zelena Dolyna-Kolodiazi arc and from the southeast around Yampil. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
2/ Geolocated combat footage corroborates claims made by Russian milbloggers that Ukrainians took control of Zelena Dolyna (15km north of #Lyman) and pushed east to take control of Kolodiazi (11km northeast of Lyman). isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
3/ Ukrainian troops also continued offensive operations around #Kupyansk on September 28. Geolocated footage shows Ukrainian troops raising Ukrainian flags over Kivsharivka, about 10km southeast of Kupyansk. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
#Russian forces are reportedly committing newly-mobilized Western Military District (WMD) men to the #Kherson and #Kharkiv Oblast frontlines without prior training. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
2/ A mobilized servicemember of the 1st Tank Regiment of an unspecified unit recorded a video plea stating that his unit will not receive training prior to deploying to Kherson Oblast on September 29. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
3/ @RFERL's @kromark geolocated the serviceman’s surroundings to the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division’s base in Kalininets, Moscow Oblast:
The #Kremlin’s planned annexation of occupied #Ukraine may take place before or shortly after October 1, the start of #Russia’s normal fall conscription cycle, to enable the forced conscription of Ukrainian civilians to fight against Ukraine. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
If it does, the #Kremlin will likely order the Russian Ministry of Defense to include Ukrainian civilians in occupied and newly annexed Ukrainian territory in the Russian conscription cycle, broadening the forced mobilization of Ukrainian civilians to fight against #Ukraine.
ISW has previously assessed that one motivation for Putin to order mobilization and annexation in concert with one another is to broaden the forced mobilization of Ukrainian civilians...
1/ The #Kremlin is deflecting blame for the Russian government’s failure to abide by its own stated criteria for mobilization and exemptions onto the failing bureaucratic institutions responsible for the mobilization. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…
2/ The Kremlin is downplaying the widespread violations as individual errors of local authorities, claiming to correct these errors as citizens call attention to them. But the violations are too common to be merely the result of individual errors, as Russian citizens clearly see.
3/ Unlike Russian failures in #Ukraine, which the #Kremlin has been able to minimize or deflect because its citizens cannot see them directly, violations of the mobilization decree are evident to many Russians. isw.pub/RusCampaignSep…