Russia is running short of fighting men.

Having suffered an estimated 500,000 fatalities and lost nearly twice that many more to serious injuries since the start of the war against Ukraine, the Russian government has long since resorted to bribing people to volunteer, offering generous incentive payments, and even pardoning criminals in exchange for signing up.

But even that is no longer enough. With stories circulating of the fatalities, and of the brutal treatment of the troops in Ukraine by their own officers — not to mention the disillusionment among the general population resulting from Putin’s failure to deliver the quick victory he promised more than four years ago — no one seems particularly anxious to sign what is essentially their own death sentence for the sake of the rodina (motherland) these days.

So the authorities have taken “recruitment” to a new level: they are snatching men off the streets, driving them to recruitment centers, and forcing them to “volunteer.”

In the city of Penza, a regional capital southeast of Moscow, one woman said:

“Of course, all of this looks like illegal coercion. My father had no intention of going to war; we discussed this with him. I see no explanation for this, other than threats, violence, or pressure.” [RFE/RL, July 2, 2026.]

Another woman had filmed one such incident in Penza on June 17th. The video was published on the Russian social network VK, but was called “untrue” by authorities and was later taken down by VK — no doubt under pressure.

And a woman in the town of Kamenka said she had spent days trying without success to locate her son, who had been abducted off the street:

“This is outrageous. People are basically being kidnapped. Something needs to be done, but I don’t know what.” [Id.]

Those people who would speak with reporters did so on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution.

Word has also spread of such “recruitments” being extended to include door-to-door searches for anyone deemed eligible. And there are growing rumors of a possible second mass mobilization being instituted in the next few months — despite the fact that the first one, started in September of 2022, resulted in a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of young men from the country.

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Vladimir Putin is already running out of fuel, thanks to Ukraine’s successful strikes on Russia’s refineries, creating chaos across the country in industry, agriculture, food distribution, and even in medical and emergency services. And now he’s running out of soldiers as well.

This is hardly how you win a war, or maintain your authority over your own people. And his desperation is clearly showing. Hopefully, it won’t be long before he has no choice but to accept defeat and call an end to the biggest miscalculation of his career.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/4/26