New volunteer units continue to be formed in Russia. At the same time, the number of personnel is low, and the declared level of manning is even lower.
The Russian authorities refer to the volunteer formations as “battalions”, but they exaggerate the actual number of conscripts in each unit. This was reported at the Institute for the Study of War.
There is nothing to do with the BTG
According to experts, the Altai Territory announced the formation of five volunteer units: battalions “Kalashnikov” and “Altai”, company “Katun”, platoon “Biya”. Russmedia notes that the advertised monthly salary ranges from 30,000 rubles (18,410 hryvnia) to 300,000 rubles (184,101 hryvnia).
A local publication in the Republic of Tatarstan stated that the Russian authorities' classification of volunteer units as “battalions” exaggerates the actual number of conscripts in each volunteer unit. In particular, the publication notes that the Parma battalion of the Perm Territory has 90 people and is structurally more consistent with a motorized rifle company, the analysts emphasized.
Most “battalions” are likely to be the size of reinforced companies. By the way, these special battalions are not described as battalion tactical groups and are not structured like BTG (battalion tactical group – channel 24).
So, the “battalion” has nothing like the conventional combat power of the battalion tactical group that invaded to Ukraine in February, even if you do not take into account the inexperience and age of many soldiers and the very limited training they receive before deploying to combat operations.
In addition, the publication “Business-Online” claims that at the beginning of the draft campaign in early June in the Republic of Tatarstan there were only 10-15 willing recruits, and by the end of the campaign these figures had tripled.
“In the report of the publication confirms ISW's assessment that federal entities have begun increasing one-time entry bonuses to boost recruitment rates in August,” the analysts added.
The war has been costly and harmful for Russia
During the six months of the war, the invaders failed to achieve their goals of capturing the whole of Ukraine. At present, the morale in the Russian army is bad because they are suffering losses. Back in April, the Russian leadership returned to more modest goals in eastern and southern Ukraine. This was stated by the British Ministry of Defense.
British intelligence noted that Russia launched a full invasion of Ukraine six months ago with the aim of overthrowing the government and occupying most of the country.
“In April “Russian leaders realized that this had failed and returned to more modest targets in eastern and southern Ukraine. The offensive in Donbass is making minimal progress, and Russia expects a major Ukrainian counterattack,” the intelligence agency stressed.
In addition , in operational terms, Russia is experiencing a shortage of ammunition, equipment and personnel. Morale is low in many parts of the army.
“Its (the Russian army – Channel 24) diplomatic power has been reduced, and the long-term economic outlook is gloomy. Six months later, the war for Russia turned out to be expensive and strategically harmful,” they added in the department.
