A desperate Vladimir Putin is conscripting football hooligans into his army to fight in Ukraine after suffering devastating losses on the battlefield.
Notorious thugs have been mobilised into the ranks of the 106th Airborne Division based in the city of Tula, 125 miles south of Moscow, where FC Tula Arsenal plays.
Footage shows the new recruits training for battle with local media reporting they have been drawn from the ranks of football ‘ultras’.
The news emerged as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted that Russia will have seen 100,000 of its soldiers and ‘God knows how many mercenaries’ killed by the year’s end.
Football hooligans are being mobilised into Russia’s 106th Airborne Division based in the city of Tula, according to local media
Footage revealed the new recruits – allegedly drawn from the ranks of notorious local ‘ultras’ – training before being sent to the frontlines in Ukraine
Speaking overnight, Zelensky said heavy fighting continues in Donetsk – particularly around the town of Bakhmut – where ‘hundreds’ of Russians are killed each day.
‘We are defending and, most importantly, we do not allow the enemy to carry out their intentions,’ he said.
‘They said that they would capture Donetsk – in the spring, summer, autumn. This week, winter is already starting.’
He added: ‘This year, Russia will lose a hundred thousand of its soldiers killed and only God knows how many mercenaries. And Ukraine will stand.
‘The world will do everything to ensure that everyone who is guilty of this criminal war is brought to justice.’
Ukraine claims that Russia has already seen around 89,000 troops killed in a little over nine months of war, with around 450 more being killed each day.
However, this figure has not been independently verified and Western estimates of Russian losses have been lower.
Mark Milley, chief of the American general staff, said earlier this month that Russia has likely seen ‘over 100,000 soldiers killed and wounded’ in Ukraine – without giving a separate figure for deaths.
Russia has been mobilising people into the ranks of the army since mid-September after suffering heavy losses in Putin’s war
FC Tula Arsenal is the football team based in the same city as the paratrooper unit, leading to speculation that the new recruits have been drawn from its hooligan fan-base (left and right)
New recruits of the 106th Airborne Division are pictured marching during training, amid reports that football hooligans have been pressed into service with the unit
It is generally assumed that casualties occur at three times the rate of deaths in war, meaning this would put the US estimate at more than 30,000 Russians killed.
Moscow spuriously claims only 6,000 troops have died, even though the BBC was able to confirm at least 9,300 fatalities through public announcements.
The high casualty rate has left Putin desperately short of manpower, and in September he resorted to mobilising 300,000 military reservists into the ranks.
Separately, the Wagner mercenary group has been recruiting from Russian prisons with the promise of amnesty in return for six months on the frontlines.
It now appears Putin is following suit, amid reports he has recruited 250 convicted to man Russia’s biggest tank factory as he runs short of military firepower in Ukraine.
The criminals will be put to work at Uralvagonzavod plant in the Urals following a barrage of complaints from officials that it has failed to produce key arms on time.
They will be deployed as machine operators, turners, millers, electric welders, and crane operators, said The Moscow Times.
The plant is working round the clock in support of Putin’s war effort, yet still failing to provide the numbers of tanks he wants.
One month ago it was reported ex-president and close Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev had shouted at the plant’s executive director Vladimir Roshchupkin with a ‘criminal case’ over the lack of supplies.
Medvedev threatened weapons-making plants with criminal action if they failed to meet Kremlin targets.
Ukrainian troops fire a howitzer near the frontlines in Donetsk, as Volodymyr Zelensky predicts 100,000 Russian soldiers will have been killed before the end of the year
A medic evacuates a wounded Ukrainian soldier from the frontlines near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, where the fiercest fighting is currently taking place
Of the criminals working in the tank plant, a source told TASS state news agency: ‘They will be involved exclusively in auxiliary work or in work that provides production processes at the enterprise.’
They will not have access to military secrets concerning new tank designs.
The plant’s regular staff have been banned from taking holidays.
Russia has lost huge numbers of tanks in the Donbas and its failed invasion to grab Kyiv.
Medvedev – deputy head of the Kremlin’s security council – was in October sent by Putin to the Uralvagonzavod Corporation, in Nizhny Tagil.
The plant also manufactures flamethrowers.
Medvedev ‘discussed ways to speed up the deliveries of hardware to the troops for using them in the special military operation and to eliminate the existing problems’.
The use of those jailed to detention centres to complete forced labour appears to be the solution.
‘Accelerating supplies of equipment to the armed forces to use during the special military operation and fixing existing problems were discussed during [Medvedev’s] inspection’, reported TASS state news agency.