January 20, 2025:
With the war in Ukraine now three years old, Russia is running out of soldiers. To deal with this problem Russia increased the maximum age of involuntarily called-up soldiers to fifty. Russia sill offers thousands of dollars to men who will join but the heavy casualties have left few younger men to tempt with the cash bonuses offered to those who will join. By 2024 Russia allows men as old as 70 to enlist and receive the cash payments. Many of these men were grandfathers and admitted they did it to provide for their orphaned grandchildren. The fathers had died in the war and many grandfathers lacked the income to help the widows take care of the grandchildren. Three years of war in Ukraine have brought tragedies like this to the Russian people. The government still hasn’t got enough soldiers and it would be humiliating to hire more North Korea mercenaries to fill the manpower gap.
Officers believe that the older soldiers provide stability to the younger troops. Some of the older men fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s and have combat experience to pass on. While not as physically capable as the young men, the old soldiers calmed the younger soldiers with assurances that they would all get through the next battle. A growing number of older soldiers don’t make it through the next battle. They may be wiser but are not quick enough to get out of the way of enemy fire or explosions from artillery or mortar shells.
Meanwhile, back in Russia military age men continue to leave the country rather than risk being mobilized into the army. There are a growing number of rumors that the government will use another forced mobilization of soldiers to fight. These men will still get the cash bonuses but many will not live to send the money. Their widows or parents will get the money as a bitter inheritance for their loss.
Russia long ago declared casualty data top secret, but the number of casualties becomes known because people talk about it and the rumors imply larger losses than actually occurred. The deaths of fifty year-old men is particularly prone to nostalgic exaggeration.
Previously the government had emptied the jails and prison camps of criminals who were enticed by cash payments or simply forced to join the military and die in Ukraine. Putting these men into uniform did not change their criminal nature and as soldiers they were often as much a danger to Russian soldiers and civilians as they were to the enemy. By 2024 Russia had run out of criminals and switched to older men, who never got to enjoy life in a Russia where there was less crime.