Putin’s desperate recruits are in a life-and-death scramble for kit

As Vladimir Putin seemingly dithers over the question of whether to send a further 500,000 of his citizens onto the battlefield this winter, one reason against – as reported on Coffee House – is surely a lack of basic equipment for them. Since the ‘partial mobilisation’ of up to 300,000 hapless men last September, there have been numerous reports of the army’s failure to properly kit them out.

Russian soldiers have been sent to the front with children-sized gloves, uselessly thin rubber boots and, for facial protection, paintball masks. ‘They think we’ll walk around in this sh** like in Star Wars,’ one Russian soldier jokes in clip recorded by those sent to fight in Ukraine. With a hollow laugh, he signs off sardonically to the supplier: ‘So, dear administrator of Stavropol, low bow, respect to you. We are always happy to serve.’

Many soldiers, however, seem understandably far from happy. In an article