CNN: Hear why Putin’s latest problem is his own military

Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov says that Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned to recruiting convicts to staff military factories that are low on manpower. #CNN #News

Transcript

Tonight, massive missile attack. Putin launching 55 missiles across Ukraine as the Kremlin threatens the US and its allies. Putin’s top spokesperson saying sending Abrams and other tanks is, quote, direct involvement in the war. As the Pentagon says that the United States will be sending an updated Abrams tank to Ukraine.

The M one, a two, which is fully digital and allows for commanders and gunners to more easily scan and identify targets. Today’s escalation of words and the barrage of missiles coming in. CNN is learning that the war is intensifying in the South now. You’re looking at new video from the city of Marinka.

You can see multiple fires raging, smoke blanketing the city. And Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT. He is outside back moved where some of the fiercest fighting continues to rage tonight. Ukraine’s tanks taking aim at the invading Russians. Kiev’s forces rallying to try to halt the massive assault on

The city where there are still some 6000 civilians has become a cauldron of fire. From this vantage point, you can both see and hear just how fierce the fighting is. You can hear impacts from heavy weapons, not just every minute, but literally every second. The Ukrainians say that the Russians are pouring

A massive amount of personnel and weapons into this area because they seem to want to take back mud at nearly any cost. There are plenty of regular Russian troops fighting around, but now but the Ukrainians say it’s still the volunteer private military company that’s leading the charge

With waves of fighters trying to storm Ukrainian positions both north and south of the city, as well as specialized forces like these snipers claiming to have killed a Ukrainian soldier. When you on the notion that all I could see was a curtained window, the sniper says the person who was paired with me

Saw a thermal outline and I just determined where to shoot Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, often touts his militia successes, but the cost is immense. This is a Varner cemetery in the crust no Daraa region of southern Russia. Row after row of fresh graves. A disposable force used to take

Just a few kilometers of land Wagner acknowledges recruiting prisoners straight out of jail and throwing them on the battlefield with minimal training and only slim chances of survival. That same indifference shown in Russian strikes that kill and maim Ukrainian civilians every day. These folks are cleaning up after a Russian missile landed

In their neighborhood near Bermuda. Unsalable work. I wish we were getting heating from the heating plant, which was hit, Yuri tells me yesterday at 3:00 it was destroyed. So now we have no electricity, no heating. We have nothing to adjudicate you. And a few miles away. One person was killed

In another densely populated area. Some of the long distance drones and missiles that Russia uses to attack Ukraine come down right near civilian areas. This year is only a few yards away from a kindergarten However, others are used to directly target critical infrastructure, and you’ll soon see more than 50 missiles fired

Just on Thursday. And while many of them were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, some were not brought down. Adding to the daily toll of destruction, the missile terror. More motivation for Ukraine soldiers around Bermuda to stand their ground and bring Vladimir Putin’s invasion to a standstill. An air. And it’s

Certainly some really brutal fighting that we witnessed around Obama today. The Ukrainians say that the Russians are trying to encircle that city. And obviously, as you can see there, the Ukrainians themselves trying to do their best to stop that from happening. Meanwhile, the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, he came out today

And ripped into those missile strikes that the Russians once again conducted calling for more air defense weapons, but of course, generally calling for more modern weapons from the West. He also praised the soldiers from the Ukrainian forces that are fighting here in Donetsk in the east of the country,

Saying that if they make a stand here, they could seriously deplete the combat power that Russia has available on other fronts as well Erin. Fred, thank you very much. From just outside Beirut tonight. And I want to go down to the Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov. He is the author of The Compatriots,

The Russian Exiles Who Fought Against the Kremlin. And Andre, you’ve got some new reporting here as French, talking about the blog Inner Group and then and still playing that central and kind of tip of the spear roll in your commute, your reporting it’s not just Bognor that’s recruiting prisoners

To aid in the Russian war effort that this now goes much deeper, that the official Russian state is doing this as well. What did you discover Yes, it looks like the Russian military factories are suffering from acute shortages and workforce even by Gonzales, which is the largest tank factory in the country,

Reported a lot of employees. So now they’re going to use Russian convicts and Russian convicts are already fighting on the battlefield in Ukraine. So now they’re going to have to manufacture all base tanks and weaponry so that the formal state, the Russian state recruiting convicts to build the tanks.

And now to this point of your reporting, I want to play something that Putin said recently that speaks to what you’re saying about the terrible state of the Russian defense industry right now. Here he is But when you given that the defense industry is now overburdened.

And given that you work in three shifts and there is a high demand for military industrial products, we are now considering the possibility of granting deferment also to those who must be called up for compulsory military service. So that looks sounds like from what he’s saying, they’ve offered anybody,

You’re going to come help us build the tanks and fix the defense supply problem. Will defer your military service. But what you’re reporting is that’s not enough. They’re still not able to get people to do it. Yes, absolutely. Actually, that started promising and protection from mobilization to service in the Army

Already in October. They also promised that pensions some some good benefits, employment for the whole families in some cases. All of that fell. They failed to find enough people to work on its factories. So now they think that only prison population of the country may help. And, of course, it’s

A sign of desperation. Just think how reliable all of these tanks and all these weaponry could be if they will be manufactured by completely unskilled workforce straight out of the prison, straight out of the prison. And that they’re emptying the prisons to do this and to fight on the front lines

Is absolutely stunning. Andre, thank you so much for sharing your latest reporting.

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