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] 92 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 13 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 22 points 21 hours ago

I hear Donald Trump is good at polishing Russian equipment.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours 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] 98 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 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] 34 points 22 hours 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] 17 points 20 hours ago

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] -5 points 16 hours ago

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.

I think what some people are arguing about is that ukraine government practices much resemble these of the russian government. Ukraine government is also drafting people by force and arresting any male between 18-60 who tries to leave the border. Many people died as a result trying to flee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_conscription_crisis#Border_crossings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXhC8WREVKM

Drafting people by force is a needless authoritarian practice in any scenario.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago (5 children)

This isn't for Ukraine.

This is for Europe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours 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 hours ago

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

The other shoe always drops later.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day 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 23 hours 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] 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

while leaving others virtually alone (France)

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 21 hours 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] 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

ooooo those French! ;)

🇫🇷

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Vive la Republique 🇫🇷

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 23 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago (1 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] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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

Oh, absolutely. However, insanity can help only that much with invasion.

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

Red, white and bluelandia wants a word with you. Do you really think it's impossible? At this point I'm not that sure anymore.

Russians are just insane morons.

I'd disagree to some extent. Call Putin what you want (and rightly so), but he is not a moron (as opposite to the Orange one). The common people is that or just don't have a choice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Putin was brilliant, his moves until 2008 were a perfection of geopolitical chess.

After that he completely lost the plot, his terror at the rise of China completely broke his mind, he felt he had to show strength less Russia become a vassal state and resource depot for the CPC.

And he wasn't wrong, but his response was stupid, and relied on Europe continuing to follow Merkel's 'nice doggy' policies.

Now he thinks he can act anyway, because his sponsored right-wing groups will cause enough dissent that nobody will stop him from taking the baltics.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Poppycock. Russia would never invade the EU or a NATO member, I don't know why people always raise this silly idea. For starters there's no gain, for seconds they'd get their ass handed to them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago

They aren't rational, otherwise they would have waited to invade Ukraine till 2024 while cashing fuel checks.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 21 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 21 hours 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] 8 points 20 hours ago

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] 9 points 20 hours ago

In other news, Russian mail order brides increasing?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours 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] 6 points 20 hours 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] 2 points 16 hours 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] 4 points 16 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours 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] 9 points 22 hours 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] 2 points 19 hours ago

"Mediated" talks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

Too bad you can't just draft military hardware.