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The reservists in Russia he is calling up are mostly 40-60 year olds who have been out of the military for decades. I would wager more than half of them wouldn't pass any sort of physical. Without a full mobilization by Russia that draws up on younger recruits and the time to train them this is just feeding the quagmire. Putin is too scared to do that so he is now going to send grandfathers to die.
Those referendum are going to be used by the West to increase the type of weapon systems they give Ukraine. F-16s and M1 Abrams are going to be next - the US has 1000's of both in long term storage.
The F-16s in particular are only as good as the pilots. I don't think there is enough time to get Ukraine up to speed in that aircraft and its systems and be any use in the air.
Without a full mobilization by Russia that draws up on younger recruits and the time to train them this is just feeding the quagmire.
Oddly enough Gennedy Zyuganov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, is calling for full mobilization. Which is significantly more hawkish on the Ukraine question than what Putin wants. While younger CPRF members were against this war, Zyuganov was not, and his position seems to be, "if we're gonna do this, we can't half-ass it."
The reservists in Russia he is calling up are mostly 40-60 year olds who have been out of the military for decades. I would wager more than half of them wouldn't pass any sort of physical. Without a full mobilization by Russia that draws up on younger recruits and the time to train them this is just feeding the quagmire. Putin is too scared to do that so he is now going to send grandfathers to die.
Those referendum are going to be used by the West to increase the type of weapon systems they give Ukraine. F-16s and M1 Abrams are going to be next - the US has 1000's of both in long term storage.
This is incredibly distressing.
The F-16s in particular are only as good as the pilots. I don't think there is enough time to get Ukraine up to speed in that aircraft and its systems and be any use in the air.
M1 Abrams are also ~1.5-2x the weight of Russian tanks. Made for fighting and defending in Western Europe not storming into Eastern Europe.
In Eastern Europe those M1s are as likely as a vampire to survive crossing significant amounts of water.
Oddly enough Gennedy Zyuganov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, is calling for full mobilization. Which is significantly more hawkish on the Ukraine question than what Putin wants. While younger CPRF members were against this war, Zyuganov was not, and his position seems to be, "if we're gonna do this, we can't half-ass it."