Ukraine Claims Russia Hiring More Mercenaries Despite Massive Mobilization

Ukraine has accused the Russian military of hiring mercenaries in the ongoing war despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent partial mobilization.

"To replenish the losses in manpower, the Russian military leadership does not stop the practice of recruiting mercenaries. In particular, citizens of other countries," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an operational update on Friday. "It became known about the arrival of about four hundred foreign militants on the temporarily occupied territory of the Republic of Crimea on October 9 of this year. In the future, it is planned to involve them in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine."

The operational update comes just a few weeks after Putin announced the partial mobilization of troops to help fight in the ongoing war against Ukraine. Prior to the mobilization, Ukrainian defense forces continued their counteroffensive attacks and attempted to retake territories that were partially under Russian control.

Despite Putin's mobilization, the Institute for the Study of War recently published a report on Russia's offensive campaign and said that the Kremlin leader was failing to please "three main factions" of Russian nationalists with his military efforts.

"Russian milbloggers and war correspondents, former Russian or proxy officers and veterans, and some of the Russian siloviki—people with meaningful power bases and forces of their own," the Institute for the Study of War listed, outlining the three factions it said Putin needs support from.

The report also noted criticism from "siloviki group" leaders including "Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov and Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin."

Kadyrov recently criticized Russian General Alexander Lapin after Ukraine's military forces were able to liberate parts of Lyman. Shortly after, Prigozhin offered further criticism of the general, saying, "All these bast**ds should be sent barefoot to the front with automatic guns."

Following the criticism from both Kadyrov and Prigozhin, a Russian military expert, Oleg Zhdanov, recently spoke with a Ukrainian radio station and said the two members of Russia's elite "will shake up the situation to overthrow Putin."

While speaking with Newsweek earlier this week, Seth Jones, director of the International Security Program and the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Putin's mobilization is putting "poorly trained, poorly equipped forces" on the battlefield that are having "significant difficulties."

"We're seeing that repeatedly in tactical levels of the fight right now, which is just poorly trained, poorly equipped Russian forces, and this mobilization is not solving these problems," Jones told Newsweek.

"They're in a serious problem with their personnel, the ability of their forces to fight and the equipment that they're providing them," Jones added.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.