WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin conscripts 160K men as Russia eyes Ukraine offensive

Russia has initiated its largest military draft in 14 years as reports indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing a spring assault on Ukraine despite ongoing peace negotiations to end the three-year war. 

Putin has called up 160,000 men as part of the country’s bi-annual conscription drive as Russia seeks to beef up its military ranks.

According to the legislation, citizens aged 18 to 30 will be called up for mandatory military service through June 15. The spring draft marks the largest conscription campaign since spring 2011, when 200,000 men were called up for service. Last year, 150,000 men were called, following 134,500 in 2022.

The Kremlin and Defense Ministry insist the latest conscripts are not being sent into combat and that the draft is unrelated to the war in Ukraine. Russian authorities say troops deployed to Ukraine only include volunteers who signed contracts with the military.

Some draftees, however, fought and were taken prisoners when the Ukrainian military launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August.

Putin said late last year that Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

It comes as a report suggests the Kremlin is preparing a six- to nine-month offensive across the Ukrainian front, potentially stretching over 1,000 kilometers, according to The New Voice of Ukraine. Potential targets include Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya oblasts, as well as the Kursk Oblast, where they’ve seen recent success.

The offensive is also aimed at maximizing pressure on Ukraine and strengthening the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts said.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led talks attempting to broker a ceasefire deal appear to have stalled. The U.S. has struggled in its efforts to secure an immediate 30-day ceasefire, despite Moscow saying it agreed with a truce "in principle." 

Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer who specializes in Russia’s war-fighting strategy and Putin’s thinking, told Fox News Digital that Putin’s goal with his conscription drive is to prolong the fighting.

"There’s no ceasefire and no peace plan between Russia and Ukraine to be had," said Koffler, the author of a best-selling book "Putin’s Playbook." "What President Trump seeks is regretfully, unachievable. Putin's goal is to keep fighting, in order to compel Ukraine to capitulate."

Trump is trying to secure a peace and rare earth minerals deal, while on Sunday the president said he did not think Putin was going to go back on his word for a partial ceasefire.

Koffler, meanwhile, said the latest conscription numbers are intended to ensure that the correlation of forces on the battlefield and in reserves, continues to favor Russia. 

"Now that Germany and France are considering to deploy reassurance forces into Ukraine, Putin is factoring in those numbers, so he is increasing his force's posture, to deter such a deployment or failing to prevent it by force."

"Putin has prepared Russia for a long, protracted conflict, in which he wants the Russian forces to be ready to fight till the last Ukrainian and the last missile in the NATO arsenal," Koffler said.

She said Putin is also considering the possibility of having a direct kinetic war with NATO, in the event that NATO decides to deploy forces into the theater in Ukraine. 

"So, he intends for these mobilization numbers as a deterrence value and battlefield utility, if it comes to that."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine continuing attacks on Russian energy facilities – MOD

The Ukrainian military has launched new attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, despite claiming it complies with a US-brokered truce on such strikes, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

Two incidents have been registered in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Ukrainian drones targeted a substation and damaged a power line in the area, the military said. The attacks inflicted material damage and cut some 1,500 customers off the grid, it added.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are systematically launching strikes with drones and artillery systems on Russian energy infrastructure against the backdrop of statements by various representatives of the Kiev regime, starting with [Vladimir] Zelensky, about compliance with restrictions on strikes on Russian energy facilities,” the ministry said.

Later in the day, Luganskgaz, an energy company operating in Russia’s Lugansk People's Republic, reported a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its facilities. The attack hit a gas distribution station, sparked a fire and disrupted supply to more than 11,000 customers, the company said in a statement. Gas supply has already been partially restored after the attack, it added.

Ukraine violates the US-brokered energy truce on a daily basis, the ministry claimed.

The partial ceasefire was proposed by US President Donald Trump during a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in March. The Russian leader accepted the proposal, immediately ordering the country’s troops to halt such attacks. At the time, the Russian military said it had to shoot down seven of its own kamikaze drones that were en route to Ukraine’s energy facilities when the order was issued.

Last week, Moscow revealed a comprehensive list of energy facilities subject to the 30-day truce. The agreement could be prolonged, Russia has noted, adding that if either party violates the deal, the other can consider itself free from any obligations.

Zelensky publicly backed the idea of the truce shortly after it was first announced, appearing to reiterate his commitment to the deal last week. However, the Ukrainian leader never publicly mentioned any specific orders to the country’s military despite hailing the truce as a purported “victory”for Kiev.

Reuters/RT