Unroll: Rus Fed Mobilization in Donbass
Originally published on Twitter:
I’ve posted a transcript of Putin’s morning address [here].
- The Russian Federation is mobilizing their experienced reservists for their Special Military Operation (SMO) in the Donbass, and they’re professionalizing the military ranks of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LDPR).
- Besides Lugansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye Oblasts are added to objectives.
- The FSB will also be investigating “volunteer” (paramilitary) battalions currently fighting for Donbass to ensure their legal status.
Why this matters:
Presently in Ukraine, military personnel from the Russian Federation consists of military contractors hired by the Russian military to carry out Special Ops (colloquially known as Wagner PMC), and paramilitary volunteers who operate independently of the Rus Fed military.
What Russia’s military mobilization means:
Besides deploying their regular military forces, this means that Russia will be shutting down extremists that their government recognizes as illegal paramilitary formations. It also means that extremist criminals from Russia who have self-exiled to Donbass and taken up arms in the Ukrainian Civil War will be purged from the LDPR ranks.
I am guessing now that some of these extremists could possibly switch sides, like they did when the FSB did a similar purge in 2014 and many members of the Eurasian Youth Union ended up fighting on the side of Ukraine’s Right Sector, forming the Saint Mary’s Battalion.
Russian Nazis and NazBols loathe Putin and have no loyalty to Putin’s Russia. Most Americans don’t understand this.
This is a really good academic study of the various paramilitary organizations that found a safe haven in Donbass before and during the civil war. They have not and do not operate in Donbass with Putin’s blessing or support from the Russian government: archive.ph/LT38P#selectio…
Anti-Putinists often bring up these groups as evidence of Russia’s support for fascist radicals in Donbass, but this is far from reality. These groups also want an armed revolution in Russia, to overthrow the Putin regime.
The difference between Russian and Ukrainian Nazis:
Russia treats their Nazis like criminals.
Ukraine deputizes their Nazis, created an entire military branch for them, and glorifies them as national heroes.
Originally published on Twitter:
The significance of Rus Fed professionalizing LDPR military forces should not be ignored by military analysts. Rogue militias are a problem on both sides of this conflict. It results in a lot of off-mission and counterproductive stunts, and sometimes even friendly fire skirmishes.
I see some of the retired Western generals and colonels talking smack about this Rus Fed move, as if it’s a bad thing that battalions would now have their hands tied because they won’t be allowed to act on their own initiative.
But IMO, a central command structure will make Donbass Allies more effective now, not only because everyone would be on the same page and there would be a more unified battle plan, but because it would improve communications and logistics tremendously.
I’m rooting for Donbass Allies in this fight, and so it suits me fine that pro-Ukraine analysts are dumb asses. But the fact that military analysis on our side looks more like a Mean Girl gossip clutch, rather than anything based on reality, is probably why we haven’t actually won any real battles in a long time. They keep underestimating the enemy, out of some false sense of superiority, as if all of the non-Europeans are still primitive savages who fight w/ wooden clubs.