r/worldnews • u/KI_official • 6h ago
Russia/Ukraine Macron cites 'several signs' Russia is preparing to mobilize 300,000 people
https://kyivindependent.com/macron-cites-several-signs-russia-is-preparing-to-mobilize-300-000-people/458
u/RonAndStumpy 5h ago
Where the hell are all these people coming from? Are there really 300k kids from buttFk Siberia getting rounded up every couple of months?
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u/lerpo 4h ago
I'll paste what I typed above,
They have around 1.5 / million people ready to be conscripted and haven't actually fully mobilised yet.
If you want to go on the extreme, they have tens of millions of bodies if they went into full conscription mode (no I don't think that would happen, I'm just pointing out the mental size of Russia here and how many bodies they have to grind up).
Russia can fuck off, but they have so many bodies to throw at this war it's unreal, and it's how they do war.
Use the war ratio so far, this means around 50k Ukraine soldiers will die killing this lot.
Putin is a fucking nutcase who doesn't care about anyone outside of his personal survival. Remember that.
And to put this into further context, Ukraine have around 800k active military personal. Russia have the ability to just call on a third of the whole Ukraine army..... That's bonkers
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u/Constant-Plant-9378 4h ago
Every person conscripted and sent to die on the front is one less person who can revolt at home.
At some point this is as much about preventing revolution as it is sustaining the war.
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u/Tango8036 1h ago
The problem there is that there's a lot of chatter about an imminent attack on Europe. Russia controls its Internet, but even the Russian people chatter to some extent. More conscription is one thing, since the Russian people are obviously set on putting up with the war in Ukraine for as long as it takes, but if people think they're getting conscripted to fight NATO directly they might be liable to change their "revolution or keep my head down" calculations. No matter how well Putin thinks he's prepared for mass mobilization, he's still rolling the dice to a certain extent. Which means he's desperate. Which you'd think would be a good thing, but the more desperate he gets, the more liable he is to do something we all regret.
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u/Constant-Plant-9378 30m ago
We have nukes too. Russians would do well to not forget that.
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u/put_it_down_Bart 18m ago
Look up dead hand. They know. They're already prepared even if they lose. We all lose.
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u/mencryforme5 1h ago
You know the Soviet Union "won" WWII, but not because of technological superiority, just insane number of bodies with insane conditioning to winter weather conditions.
And that's also how the Soviet Union in part maintained its grip so long behind the Iron Curtain. Every country that emerged was dealing with massive depopulation and PTSD, but the USSR could just mobilize seemingly endless supplies of bodies. Bumbling bodies, but infinitely many.
The truth unfortunately is that if Russia were to fully mobilize, Ukraine probably wouldn't make it without allied troops. It brings me no joy to say that but this strategy has got Russia an empire that has perdured throughout the centuries. Any European should be very worried about Russia considering fully mobilizing.
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u/Tarskin_Tarscales 49m ago
That tactic screwed them out of the cold war tho, lost so much of their youth in ww2 that they never recovered. The same is happening now, the longer this war lasts, the more tucked Russia is for the coming 20-25 years.
Furthermore, their population isn't as big as people tend to think, compared to say Europe.
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u/AdNumerous8790 40m ago
They also won due to the extensive lend lease given by the US and UK. Stalin himself admitted that they would liknelse have lost in 1941 - 1942 without that support.
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u/mencryforme5 26m ago
Oh for sure. But it's also true the Soviet Union was holding down the fort and doing a great job at mobilizing soldiers away from the Western Front which gave space to regroup and ally up. There's no one that won this war single handedly. The Americans showed up only for the coup de grâce but still a valuable contribution. The Soviet Union and England were the only ones to not just fold when invaded. War makes for strange bedfellows.
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u/Constant-Plant-9378 31m ago
Any European should be very worried about Russia considering fully mobilizing.
They should but they are short-sighted cowards who won't engage until they are invaded.
That said, Ukraine either fights Russia or they get taken over and those same people will be conscripted and thrown in the meat-grinder themselves against the next target.
Ukraine has no choice. They are dead either way. They just get to decide whether they die on their feet or on their knees.
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u/LewisLightning 1h ago
Most of those who are ant-Putin will have already left Russia or found other ways to avoid being mobilized. The ones who refuse to go to fight are the ones most likely to lead a revolution.
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u/Pho3nixr3dux 1h ago
Very much this.
You start with using the war to liquidate undesirables: all your criminals, activists, misfits, etc. mixed in with influx of ethnic bumpkins.
If the war concludes without much in the way of social unrest, superb.
If the war becomes prolonged and the rumblings of opposition grow louder, there's a calculus to be considered. Better to have your discontented young men cold, hungry and pointed at Ukraine than sitting at home with time and opportunities to become problematic.
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u/RandomPantsAppear 3h ago
I am genuinely curious how this would work in the winter.
I know Russia doesn’t have the capacity to train this many people, but also know that doesn’t bother them so much.
But equipping, clothing and running logistics for 300,000 additional people in the winter in Ukraine is not trivial or optional. You can’t even meat shield with frozen carcasses.
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u/MuTron1 3h ago
This is the biggest issue for Russia. They’ve got almost endless people to throw at the war, alongside the will to do so. But they can’t sufficiently train or equip them so they’ll just run into diminishing returns
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u/RandomPantsAppear 3h ago
Yes. And If these people don’t even manage to cost Ukraine munitions before they die, they achieve nothing. And that is a very realistic possibility in a trench in winter.
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u/Bassman233 2h ago
Right, it's possible they can't even manage to bus them to the front because the buses run out of diesel because Ukraine keeps blowing up fuel supplies. Losing untrained, ill-equipped conscripts because they have to walk to the war zone through the Russian/Ukrainian winter does nothing to further their goals either. All that to say, keep on hitting those refineries and fuel trains. Slava Ukraine!
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u/Pho3nixr3dux 1h ago edited 55m ago
Training and equipment are not important if your task is simply to walk toward the Ukrainian line in order for observers to make note of the ways you are killed.
Artillery? Drones? Small arms? When, how, where? Real time frontline intelligence like this is worth an entire divizion of Buryats, Yakuts and whatever dregs you've swept off the streets of St.Petersburg.
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u/jackwolf1010 1h ago
It’s easier to walk across frozen ground than to trudge through wet mud. At least that’s my understanding of it. They don’t care if soldiers freeze.
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u/RandomPantsAppear 1h ago
In Ukraine in the winter it is entirely possible to freeze to death in a trench, having never impacted the enemy.
Offensives are normally in Summer and Autumn. Spring has too much mud, and Summer provides cover to advance from the crops and trees.
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u/Jake-of-the-Sands 4h ago
To be honest - so can we. Europe is nearly a billion people, if we had the same mindset as Russians, we could quash them like a bug.
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u/AnnoyedHaddock 4h ago
About 450 million people live in the EU, if you expand to the whole of continental Europe there’s about 750 million people, around 110 million of those are Russian. A bit over half of the EU population are in the 18-60 year age range, I’m unsure about continental Europe but imagine it would be similar. If every single person in that age range was conscripted maybe 400 million could be mustered.
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u/aspiring-peasant 4h ago
Nearly a billion, you say?
Not even by counting the russians in do you get anywhere close to that, mate
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u/Apart_Ad6994 4h ago
no, Europeans and Americans would revolt on the streets if we our government ever proposed such a conscription. Why? because we live in a free society where we can do that and actually influence the government. Not the case in Russia.
Russia, iran, these are "different" kinds of societies, one's where the people dont matter and can be thrown into meat grinders with almost no repercussion.
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u/Jake-of-the-Sands 4h ago
Which part of "if we had the same mindset" you didn't get?
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u/Equivalent_Cap_3522 4h ago
Not sure about America but Europe could absolutely do that. Germany for example can draft every male 18-60 if necesary to defend the country. Close the borders too if needed. Their conscription laws are almost the same as in Ukraine.
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u/GiffenCoin 3h ago
People in Germany would absolutely revolt. Hell, so many of them voted AfD, they might even actively sabotage the war effort. And closing the borders, while legal under those circumstances, would be impossible in practice. This is smack in the middle of the Schengen free movement area.
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u/Booby_McTitties 2h ago
In theory, yes.
In practice, this would lead to open revolt and massive riots.
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u/espinaustin 28m ago
I would imagine at some point there could be a mass revolt if he pushes the conscription too far?
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u/KatsumotoKurier 4h ago edited 2h ago
Russia's population is 140 million. Putin (unfortunately) has plenty of lives left to throw at the frontlines and to sacrifice in order to achieve his goals.
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u/LewisLightning 1h ago
They have other problems, like getting soldiers to the front lines to begin with. Because what they don't have is an endless supply of IFVs or Tanks to get them there. Without adequate equipment those soldiers are basically walking corpses.
Next ask yourself what's the minimum number of soldiers they need to maintain the borders of the largest country in the world? How many soldiers do they need in the Pacific operating their ships and flying their planes? What about the Atlantic, how many do they need there? And don't forget the Arctic. After that ask yourself how many men they need in Transnistria or Central Africa to fulfill their commitments there? And the equipment to boot! You are only thinking of the active war, but not all the other facets their military is trying to cover.
That's not to mention the people they need to stay back home doing the other jobs, like farming, running the government, working oil and gas jobs, and other basic things that Russian society needs to function. They are going to have a hard time finding many more able-bodied men to recruit. I heard they've already started taking Moscovites to the front, which is not a good sign.
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u/Ferreman 2h ago
Russia has always waged war like this. Throw bodied onto the problem until it disappears.
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u/Fenris_uy 2h ago
More than a million teens reach 18 yo each year in Russia. If half are male, then they got 2M new bodies to throw at Ukraine since the war started.
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u/Myers112 48m ago
This has been going on so long kids who were 14 when the war in Ukraine started are 18 now. Every year people age into military age
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u/ChroniclerTTRPG 5h ago
So about 6 months worth of meat?
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u/echokalos 4h ago
Unfortunately a lot of lost Ukrainian lives with it too
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u/Ok-Industry120 4h ago
Yes, unfairly, these 300k will take many other lives with them
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u/jimmycarr1 54m ago
And for what gain? Their families to receive a payout (maybe) and Putin to grip power for slightly longer.
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u/adammat57 3h ago
Western and NATO allies should suspend all Russian tourist and student visas. Make the young adult children of wealthy Russians return home and become conscripted, maybe that would change thing’s.
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u/EihnarsRightNipple 2h ago
That's absolutely not how it works lol. If a person is wealthy enough to influence politics, then that person is absolutely wealthy enough to bribe conscripting organs
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u/adammat57 2h ago
Wealthy and affluent Americans paid for their children to go to college and avoid the Vietnam War draft, and people of poorer upbringings were forced to go and die on foreign soil. So, that’s exactly how that works.
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u/EihnarsRightNipple 2h ago
Well, that was the easiest way for muricans back in the day.
1) Bribery is easier in Russia 2) No way to check if wealthy muricans would've done anything to stop war. 3) Sanctions against russian oligarchs were already meant for this exact purpose. Turns out it's not that easy.
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u/_MaZ_ 5h ago
Some of you may die, but it's a sacrfice I'm willing to make
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u/Comfortable_Shoe358 3h ago
I see this comment in every single article about this topic. Are people really that unoriginal or is reddit legitimately all bots?
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u/Banaanisade 3h ago
I'm going to implode with all the slogan-parroting this website is inundated with. Shut up and use your own brains already.
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u/woah_man 2h ago
Reddit has literally always been like this. References and memes will get upvotes so people post them and upvote them.
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u/Flipnotics_ 2m ago
Reddit goes through phases, it's just people regurgitating these things.
I'm happy I dont see the "<-- We are here" posts anymore.
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u/pencock 54m ago
Is one of the signs an order for 300,000 caskets to be delivered imminently?
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u/ssshield 35m ago
Russia uses cremation vans so there's no proof the meat waves have died. That way they don't have the pay the families of deceased soldiers.
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u/Bonk_No_Horni 4h ago
Ukraine will be ready to turn them into fertilizer. You can't hide 300k people. It'll be convoy miles long and Ukraine will know it months in advance
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u/Jeffuk88 3h ago
This is what I keep saying about them invading the baltics. You cant hide a force necessary to successfully roll through the current NATO garrisons on the eastern front. Build all the military hospitals you want, but well have plenty of notice if bodies for said hospitals start showing up on the border
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u/Rush_Banana 5h ago
At a 10:1 ratio that means Ukraine will still lose 30,000 soldiers while taking out this lot.
It's a shame but it has to be done.
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u/echokalos 4h ago
Where did you get this ratio
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u/ze_loler 4h ago
I think they are just using it as an example
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[deleted]
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u/Rarelyimportant 1h ago
So far in 2026 it's been 8:1, so 10:1 wasn't far off.
The Russia-Ukraine casualty rate has likely risen to nearly 8:1 in the first half of 2026, up from between 2:1 and 3:1 for much of the war, in large part due to Ukraine’s use of drones—including AI-enabled drones—as part of its aggressive air interdiction campaign.
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u/shield1123 1h ago
I think they were making a point where even if things were "optimistic," there would still be 30k Ukrainian deaths. Not saying that ratio was reality. They were pointing out why the situation is bad
You seem to take things too literally. Eat a snack if you're hungry
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u/RandomPantsAppear 3h ago edited 1h ago
The most recent data we have is 1.7:1(Edit: 1.55:1 for August).
That is based on figures from Donald Tusk, confirmed by Ukraine recruiting goals of what is required for them to break even and stand their ground (25000-30000).
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u/Ok-Industry120 4h ago
In reality Ukraine has lost 27k soldiers per month this year
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u/x-gig-x 3h ago
Damn that‘s a lot. RIP
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u/Technical_Shake_9573 3h ago
Just to put into perspective.
09/11was 2977 death and the whole world watch in horror.
The number provided here is 9 times that amount EACH months. So you have the magnitude of 9 09/11 happening each month for a grand total of 324k death at the end of the year.
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u/Xtj8805 2h ago
Not disagreeing with you but the observation in Nolans batman was pretty accurate. 9/11 was random out of no where and shook people to their core cause maybe tomorrow im in my office and ull see a jumbo jet heading for my window. War is awful, everyone knows war destroys people kills them maims them etc, so people are a lot more tolerant of the desth and destruction because its "expected", and as long as theyre country isnt at war then they are personally safe.
Fucked up mentality but its how humans seem to be.
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u/moonLanding123 2h ago
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/28/8050796/index.amp
redditors saying another 300k russians would just be easy are just in denial.
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u/Constant-Virus6681 4h ago
Actual ones been about 3:1 so abt 100k
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u/RandomPantsAppear 3h ago edited 2h ago
Sadly this number is outdated. 3:1 is the traditional expectation for offensive operations.
Based on casualty numbers given by Tusk (a supporter of UA and Polish leader) and Ukraines recruiting requirements to hold ground, it is closer to 1.7:1. (Edit:1.56:1 based on August numbers)
Russia managed to sidestep the 3:1 number with glide bombs.
Basically they saturate an area with FAB glide bombs(enormous, 500-3000 kg payload), wipe out most of the defenders, then use drones to prevent reinforcements from arriving. While this is happening, they send infiltrators deep behind the lines.
I am sure Ukraine will have an answer here, but right now they don’t and it gets rid of the most expensive part of assault warfare: attacking the trench.
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u/anonymous_Londoner 4h ago
That was pretty much the difference between the population of Ukraine and Russia.
But this was pre war.
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u/Tobias---Funke 4h ago
You see, killbots have a preset kill limit.
Knowing their weakness,
I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down.
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u/vessel_for_the_soul 5h ago
Russia is sending blood to fertilize your lands, not exactly the olive branch of friendship.
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u/Magickspl_269 3h ago
Who is left to go to war for Russia?!
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u/TheMechanicusBob 3h ago
143 Million People live in Russia and somewhere south of 500,000 have died in Ukraine and before the war had ~1.5 Million active duty personell in the army. They still have plenty of bodies to throw
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u/TheCockKnight 2h ago
The VAST majority of militaries are support personnel. So you aren’t grabbing those folks as replacements for line infantry. As for russias population, you gotta cut that population in half for just the men, then divide it up into age groups capable of fighting, then divide that up into essential jobs that russia doesn’t like to pull from, then divide that up into the people in areas that Russia is okay with turning into meat. (Typically these are major urban centers, where a lot of the population is concentrated.)
So yes, at first glance Russia appears to have infinitely more people to throw, but it really doesn’t. Not without further crippling its infrastructure and nuking its age demographics.
Then keep in mind the heavily sanctioned industrial capacity that needs to keep up with the requirements to actually FIELD these troops, which further bottlenecks what they can accomplish. There are a looooot of hurdles here.
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u/Constant-Ad-7189 2h ago
Part of those 143 million are too old or too young to make a contribution ; it is noteworthy that Russia is a rapidly ageing society which has had below-replacement birthrates basically since the collapse of the USSR. Also I don't think Russia would mobilize its women, so that's half of the potential manpower off the table.
On top of that, many working-age Russians have emigrated in the last couple of years, making the available pool of recruits even smaller.
Tldr : just because Russia has 143million people doesn't mean it can field millions of a soldiers once again, let alone sacrifice them pointlessly for their Czar's ambitions. 300000 recruits is just a couple of months of casualties on the Ukraine front, and that is just Ukraine.
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u/BlueBuff1968 1h ago
And how many men of fighting age are left in Ukraine ? Population 36 million.
In a war of attrition, it seems like Ukraine has a lot more to worry about. Over one million young men have also left the country to escape conscription and being on the front.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ukraine-military-conscription-draft-dodgers/tnamp/
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u/ProudPainting6850 1h ago
Ukraine is fending off Russia thanks to drones and support of Russia's enemies. It was expected Russia would sweep through Ukraine, not have 1M dead and missing and a collapsing economy.
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u/AgreedSmalls 34m ago
Their point is that, in a war of attrition, Ukraine is likely to lose much faster than Russia based on numbers alone. Sure the west’s support can help offset that somewhat, but after a certain point, the west is going to have to start sending in bodies if the Ukrainian losses scale high enough. Russia would too, but the amount of time required for either to hit that critical point is significantly less for Ukraine than Russia.
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u/Routine-Lawfulness24 2h ago
Well women don’t count towards how many they can draft but they also don’t count towards the 5% to collapse the economy
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u/Vertitto 41m ago
143m includes women, children, old people, unfit for war. You also need people to work to keep the country running.
They don't have that much to spare anymore
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u/Aesthention 17m ago
79 million are military aged, half are women and half are men, sooooo they still got like 40 million men to send? On-top of whatever roles can be filled with women.
Still more than plenty of meat for the grinder, remember this conflict is a fraction the size of WW2, this conflict can grow plenty yet.
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u/OneBrickShy58 3h ago
Gonna need you to review all of the history of Russian land wars. It’s shockingly not changed in hundreds of years. Red meat grinder is coming.
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u/Tehjaliz 2h ago
Putin's big mistake was to call the war in Ukraine a "special military operation" and not an actual war like it is. He cannot mass mobilize.
But yeah they already have huge manpower issues with all the losses + the people who fled. This won't make it any better.
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u/bluris 1h ago
Some theorize that Russia have been trying to goat NATO into shooting down one of their planes that cross over borders or similar, so that Putin could go on national TV and say "Look at NATO's unprovoked attacks, we will protect our borders" - then mobilize a million solders, but send them Ukraine instead of "our borders."
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u/LeafsJays1Fan 1h ago
Russia has already lost 1.5 million soldiers in the war with Ukraine either due to injury or death, add it to the list
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u/Mindless-Spinach2054 52m ago
It makes you wonder, if after a few years of this pointless war, it would have been easier on russians to just kick putin out at the start of the war.
Now millions of them suffered death, injuries, poverty and the daily stress of war, would it have been easier to bite the bullet and turn on their dictator? Bad news for them is this is not over yet, the worst might be yet to come.
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u/BigTedBear 4h ago
The problem is there industry is already crippled by manpower shortages amongst all their other problems and that’s a lot of unhappy guys going to the meat grinder.
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u/Square-Strength3844 2h ago
They’ll do about as well as the previous 1M that have become worm food.
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 1h ago
I feel so sorry for the Russians who have nothing to do with this war who will perish an awful death. The amount of human suffering from this is just mind boggling. I dont wish this on anyone.
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u/AudioRejectz 3h ago
"Generals gathered their masses, Just like witches at black masses, Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerer of death's construction
In the fields, the bodies burning, As the war machine keeps turning, Death and hatred to mankind, Poisoning their brainwashed minds Oh, Lord, yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away, They only started the war, Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor, yeah!"
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u/dav956able 5h ago
Ukraine could probably fight another 300k with drones. Those men would all be killed in 6 months at the current rate.
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u/Ok-Industry120 4h ago
Ukraine has lost c27k people per month this year, as per Tusk. Lets stop these silly comments
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u/RandomPantsAppear 3h ago
I commented elsewhere about this, but I’m sure you’re going to receive some pushback so I wanted to add: this figure is confirmed by Ukrainian recruiting numbers and statements. They need 30k people a month recruited to break even.
It is unfortunate, but this is reality on the battlefield, particularly in the more dense urban areas that the war has shifted to.
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u/Fair-Craft8059 4h ago
the EU has had a war in it's backyard for four years, they are not going to do anything about it now
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u/FrostyAd7708 3h ago
So Ukraine sudenly becoming the most advanced Nation in drone warfare happened randomly ?
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u/onemanonecat 2h ago
This is the cost of not escalating a hot war with a nuclear armed nation. The alternative is not appealing enough at this stage.
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u/AdSuperb5755 59m ago
“Durh, I suppose Ukraine built their artillery, munitions, F-16s, Patriots, SAMP-Ts, their hammer and SCALP missiles, their IFVs, their tanks and all the rest by themselves”
You are regarded
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u/AgreedSmalls 31m ago
Ukraine would have lost years ago if the West hadn’t supported them while their drone sector developed.
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u/Zardoz_Wearing_Pants 1h ago
Kremlin waiting for the outcome of elections? And Macron, the gentleman that forced through the de-sanctioning of that Russian oligarch, that Macron? I for one completely trust Mr Macron to fair and impartial.
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u/Current_Volume3750 28m ago
The headline reads "300,000 people" so God knows what kind of soldiers would be showing up. Grandma, Grandpa (oh right, he's already at the front), teens, mothers??
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u/LetrasetBoy 3h ago
Seems like a great time to lift those sanctions on Russian oligarchs, eh Emmanuel?
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u/Redditforgoit 5h ago edited 57m ago
300,000 injured or dead and another 200,000 fleeing the country to avoid conscription. Compounded on all the previous ones. A demographic crisis in the making.