Russia is mobilizing more recruits and hiring, firing generals – ISW

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The Kremlin is manipulating the laws on mandatory military obligations for Russian male citizens for the purpose of getting more men to serve in the army without announcing a full-scale mobilization, the ISW report says.

The Russian parliament on June 28 is to discuss legislative amendments to allow for the contracting of young people into the army on commercial terms as soon as they reach the age of 18 and finish school.

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The Kremlin has now chosen Colonel General Gennadiy Zhydko, a high-ranking intelligence officer who led the political department of Russian Armed Forces, to lead the Russian military effort in Ukraine at the current stage of the war.

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Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu was reported by Russian media to have visited Russian troops stationed on Ukraine’s sovereign territory on June 26. It was claimed that he had paid visits to Russian command centers and held several strategy meetings with Russian officers in the occupied territories.

Colonel General Zhydko was spotted in video of Shoigu’s visit to Ukraine – more evidence that he is involved in the day-to-day running of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Besides Zhydko, Shoigu was accompanied during his trip to Ukraine by Sergey Rudskoy, a leader of Russian Armed Forces Operational Command, and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, a deputy Russian defense minister.