this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Summary

Vladimir Putin ordered the conscription of 160,000 men—the largest draft since 2011—despite ongoing U.S.-mediated ceasefire talks with Ukraine.

The move raises doubts about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of using talks to buy time for battlefield gains in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine claims Russia intends to escalate the war, citing forced contracts for conscripts. Losses remain high on both sides, with Russia reportedly losing over 100,000 troops in 2024 alone.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

And the Russian brain drain continues as well

[–] [email protected] 112 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Guys, I'm not totally sure about this, but just maybe this guy isn't really interested in peace.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

But who's gonna polish all the equipment while they're at pace?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I hear Donald Trump is good at polishing Russian equipment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I've heard that as well.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

And what are they gonna do with all the meat grinders that they bought? They won't give it for free to random families.

[–] [email protected] 117 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

More meat for the meat grinder. And unlike Ukrainians Russia does have a choice to stop the war - all they need to do is stop and leave.

Ukrainians die to protect their homeland against invasion. Russians die for needless oligarchic aspirations of dominion of the elite. It's not the same thing for either side, as many like to make it seem as if Ukraine has any responsibility in the matter.

Any loss of life on Russia's side is completely optional, and due to Putin's whims. Not that it matters to the vultures surrounding Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not to justify it, but at this point Putin has maneuvered himself and Russia's economy into a situation where if the war stops and another doesn't start, the Russian economy will collapse and Putin will most likely end up dead. He made himself quite powerless in a way.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Between Zelensky publicly stating Putin has health issues and will die soon, and the recent incident with Putin’s limousine, he may not have a whole lot longer in any event. One can only hope…

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Putin's limo explosion got very little exposure in the American media. They don't want anyone getting any big ideas about a rising resistance.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm not judging but... Does he have lipstick on that picture?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[–] freedumb 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The most unexpected plot twist of the century would be Putin coming out as trans. Would be interesting to see how republicans would react to that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Trans man of course. He's just been woodworking since before it was called that

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

smart guy, knows now usa will not help, unless you have rare minerals so countries without minerals are in danger. And regarding peace I do not think he is interested in peace, he wants young men dying so he can also accept his own inevitable death eventually.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 days ago (6 children)

This isn't for Ukraine.

This is for Europe.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I predict an uptick of Rafale, EF2000, and JAS-39 sales in Europe, and that the models offered will be wired for nuclear delivery should the need arise.

I feel awful that our government is breaking bad over on this side of the pond… but at the same time, I think open violent revolt and civil war would be a believable scenario if orangeboi actually tries to Molotov-Ribbentrop all of fucking Europe with Putin. So I don’t think he’s gonna actually try that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

He 100% will or has done that, remember the secret protocol was secret.

The other shoe always drops later.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

160K isn't gonna cut that though. He'll need several hundred K more if he realistically wants to actually have any gains at all.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think Vladdy knows that the threat of war is much more of a nuisance to Europe than actually fighting and losing soldiers. This is just for threat posturing at borders.

The real war is being fought with unmarked soldiers, unsuspicious russian cargo vessels, heavily propagandising one country (Hungary), while leaving others virtually alone (France) to saw division, etc.

Nobody wins a war from the west. They know they have to go asymmetric, and they are, and the longer it takes Europe to realise that, the longer they will suffer. They also know wars are over 50% psychological.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

while leaving others virtually alone (France)

You realize Orbán has been bankrolling Le Pen pretty hard, right?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yep, but see what happened this week? France is a stupid country to try and get on your side from Russian perspective. They will always get drunk, revolt and then do a threesome with your women after they’re finished chopping the head off the invaders.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ooooo those French! ;)

🇫🇷

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Vive la Republique 🇫🇷

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Yeah, but Le Pen's party is still going strong. I wouldn't call it a win yet.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago

Maybe, maybe not. Either way Europe should be well prepared in case it is.

[–] Mihies 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Attacking Europe with conscripts and depleted hardware storage? I can't see how that could fail.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

They're Russian, stop trying to bring reason into it.

I'm sure they genuinely think that now the US will attack Europe and they can invade on 2 fronts.

Russians are just insane morons.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What an ignorant comment. Just because your Russian doesn't automatically mean your an insane moron based on where you were born and raised. There's people from all walks of life in all countries. Not everyone or everything is tied in a black and white box. Plenty of Russians are against war and the current geopolitcal climate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

And they will be my brothers.

As soon as the war is over they return all lands and prisoners, and pay full reparations.

Otherwise, we need to help Ukraine kill as many of their kids as possible, and we should watch the videos and laugh. :)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

HitlerPig is watching and learning. When he launches his wars, they will definitely be accompanied by a draft.

I will state this unequivocally: I will NEVER allow my son to be drafted into a MAGA War of Economic Oppprtunity. And if they somehow grab him and press him into military slavery, I will have nothing left to lose, and I will become a very dangerous individual to my son's slavemasters. And I won't be alone.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago

Well he's got a puppet running the US so, why not.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It doesn't say what region the draftees will be coming from.

There's a fair chance they won't be coming from Moscow.

Like, 100%.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, but how many 18-40 year old men are still in rural Russia that haven’t already been fed to the meat grinder or were lucky enough to get out of the country first?

Sooner or later these conscriptions are going to hit bigger cities, although they’ll likely be used to backfill non-combat positions while others are sent to Ukraine. But even that can go on for only so long…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

At least 5 million, depending on how you define rural russia and how skewed the gender & age structures actually are.

Population of russia is 143 million, 35% of which are between 18 and 44, half of which are men. That comes to 50 million, 20% of who live outside the European Russia, bringing the final count to 5 million.
And as only 21.5 million people live in the Moscow metropolitan area, so if everything outside that is counted as rural you'd have over 20 million.

In both cases the issue is logistics, equipment and training, not the lack of bodies to throw in the grinder.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And also RIP Ukrainian demographics. It's great to see Russia hurting, and they deserve their scars, but it's gonna take a very long time for Ukraine to recover too. They'll have EU support, but EU's economy probably isn't gonna be in great shape either. And you can't buy babies.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Ukraine will likely get assistance from more than just EU countries. And once things are safe again I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ukrainians around the world returning home to help rebuild etc. You can’t say the same of Russia I don’t think.

Ukraine had a very robust economy before the war, exporting everything from food to military hardware. Given what they have learned about UAV’s, etc. in the past 3 years they likely stand to regain a strong military industry once again after this is all settled. They’re already manufacturing some of their own military gear for the war, and once the war is over it should be fairly easy for them to turn all that into an export industry.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

In other news, Russian mail order brides increasing?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

100k loss is a crazy amount of death... Sadly, looking at population numbers, Russia is about 143 million people, so it shouldn't be as hard as I thought it would be for them to find more people to send to slaughter.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Take a look at their demographics, and add the millions who have fled or died or been so maimed they can't work and well you'll see why there is a labour shortage already just to have ordinary things up and running. Now imagine having enough tax revenue to take care for the elderly ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One of the reasons russia could invade ukraine is because they have an army of conscripts. Rulers and politicians use people as their paws. Be wary of any ruler or government drafting people by force even when their claim is "defense", not being drafted by force does not limit the ability of individuals to defend themself.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

When that population crashes and burns over the next 50 years it's gonna be a hell of a thing to hear about

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