Ukrainian draft enforcers are dragooning Ukrainian men off the streets and sending them to the front. They are wildly unpopular and Russia gets a twofer by bombing draft centers. They reduce Ukrainian manpower and they score points with Ukrainians who increasingly detest the Zelensky regime. From Andrew Korybko at korybko.substack.com:
This could raise the chances for a breakthrough somewhere along the front, help to decisively shift domestic public opinion against the conflict, and thus make it easier for “deep state” forces to conspire against Zelensky.
The Financial Times (FT) reported that “Russia attacks Ukraine’s draft offices in effort to undermine armed forces”, which drew attention to its latest strategy nearly three and a half years into the conflict. What began as a special operation quickly transformed into a proxy war that’s since become a “race of logistics”/“war of attrition”. Accordingly, without Trump coercing Zelensky to comply with Putin’s demands for peace and given his promise to send more “defensive weapons”, the conflict will continue.
It therefore makes sense that Russia would finally target Ukraine’s military logistics, particularly its draft centers, with a view towards preventing Kiev from replenishing its frontline losses in order to consequently raise the chances of a game-changing breakthrough somewhere along the front. Russia still won’t destroy Ukraine’s bridges across the Dnieper, possibly for the reasons speculated here last year, but striking its draft centers is better than nothing and could give also Russia a soft power edge.
As the FT acknowledged in their report, these draft centers are incredibly unpopular among the people, so it therefore follows that Russia’s destruction of them could lead to average Ukrainians breathing a sigh of relief and perhaps becoming more inclined towards a political solution to this long-running conflict. Those that already were anti-Russian or became so throughout the course of the hostilities might not change their political views, but what’s important is that they might not oppose concessions to Russia.
Defeat the enemy and win the people over, this is the way.
Read one about people cheering as a press gang center went up in smoke.
Vlad thinks ahead before he moves?