Images of drunken conscripts brawling and staggering as they depart for the Russian army suggest Vladimir Putin could have difficulty in creating effective fighting forces for his war in Ukraine through his “partial” mobilisation. Ukrainian and western officials and analysts dismiss Russia’s short-term ability to mould often reluctant recruits — whose previous military experience is brief, decades-old or non-existent — into a new offensive capability. 

“The most trained part of the reserve has probably already been consumed in Ukraine, so the remaining parts have a poor combat readiness and probably no combat experience,” said Dimitri Minic, an expert on Russian defence at the French Institute of International Relations.

“The last five years of conscripts will be mobilised in priority, but we noticed that in peripheral regions in Russia, the provisions of the partial mobilisation measure — relevant combat experience and military training — were not respected at all.” 

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> Read the article in Financial Times.