In The News

Dmitry Gorenburg says, "These new people will not be any good for counterattack or advance, but if you want to fill in the second line of defense to try to prevent any sort of Ukrainian breakthrough, mixing them in with undermanned, experienced units could be at least somewhat effective."

Sam Bendett says, “There is also an ongoing offensive in the Kherson region as Ukrainians are trying to cut off significant Russian forces there.”

Jeffrey Edmonds says the pressing issue for Putin at the moment is that he's "been losing” and the "annexation, the mobilization — these are all measures he's trying to take to fix the problem."

Samuel Bendett says, “Russia has understood the benefits of uncrewed air systems but has failed to make the investments in the technology on a large enough scale.”

Samuel Bendett says, “I think this is more about attrition of key Ukrainian targets than about ‘game changing’ strategies.”

Michael Kofman says, "In this war there has been a consistent mismatch between Putin's political objectives and the military means to attain them."

Samuel Bendett says, “there is a lot of information that is bypassing official Russian state media about peoples discontent with the mobilization, peoples fights break out when the government comes to take away solders to the recruitment centers .”

Michael Kofman says, “The Russian military in Ukraine is "overstretched," it has lost the initiative and lacks the forces to defend a vast battlefield."

Michael Kofman says, “the 300,000 target was likely "notional." Russian commanders, would have mainly poor options deciding to do with the new draftees.”

Jonathan Schroden says, “It was a myth that the Afghan security forces didn’t fight in the weeks before the collapse of the government. A lot of them stood and fought, and they died in huge numbers.”

Michael Kofman says, "In this war there has been a consistent mismatch between Putin's political objectives and the military means to attain them. At important decision points Putin has procrastinated, refusing to recognize the reality, until the options turned from bad to worse."

Elizabeth Wishnick discusses the renewed interest in the scope and depth of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership after the Chinese and Russian presidents met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan.

Elizabeth Wishnick discusses the renewed interest in the scope and depth of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership after the Chinese and Russian presidents met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan.

Michael Kofman says, “Russia can try to address the quantity aspect of the force but they can’t fix the quality, noting, in particular, the dearth of experienced officers and advanced equipment.”

Michael Kofman says, “Russian stop-loss policies, such as indefinite extensions of soldier service contracts and the end of a soldier's ability to refuse deployment, might have a more significant impact though. These measures would allow Russia's military to keep experienced troops in place as Russia faces counterattacks on multiple fronts.”

Michael Kofman says, “Still, the move could begin to address Russia's manpower shortages, in part because it would prohibit existing contract soldiers from quitting.”