General who trained US Army calls Putin’s plan to draft 300,000 to fight in Ukraine as ‘disaster’

A former United States general predicted Russia’s newly announced conscription will be a ‘disaster’, just as Google searches for ‘How to break an arm at home’ rocketed in the country since Vladimir Putin announced the new measure.

Mark Hertling, formerly an Army lieutenant general specializing in troop training, took to Twitter today to explain that Russia’s barely existent military training program is sure to spell further disaster for Russia in their sputtering invasion of Ukraine.

‘Putin’s announced mobilization of 300,000 ‘reservists’ was jaw-dropping to me this morning, but not for the reason some might suspect,’ Hertling tweeted, ‘Why? Because [sic] know how Russian soldiers are trained, in basic training & in their units.’

Hertling went on to explain how the US Army drills about 150,000 recruits per year in ten weeks of rigorous basic training, then sends them off to specialized training before the troops ‘report to their units ready to be integrated in the specific mission.’

In the Russian army, however, Hertling said recruits often receive no basic training at all and are sent straight to their units where they receive training which sometimes lasts only a handful of days.

Meanwhile, Russians seem to agree with Hertling’s assessment of their front line prospects, as Google searches for ‘как сломать руку в домашних условиях’ – which translates to ‘how to break an arm at home’ – skyrocketed in the country mere hours after Putin announced he was conscripting 300,000 citizens to join his invasion of Ukraine.

Putin announced that  300,000 people with military experience would be conscripted beginning Wednesday

Hertling said he previously visited Russia and saw their basic training, which he described as ‘awful.’

‘During 2 visits to RU, I saw basic & unit training. It was awful,’ he wrote, ‘Familiarization versus qualification on rifles, rudimentary first aid, very few simulations to conserve resources, and…most importantly…horrible leadership by ‘drill sergeants.”

‘The issue is the Russian army is poorly led & poorly trained. That starts in basic training, and doesn’t get better during the RU soldier’s time in uniform.’

‘Mobilizing 300k ‘reservists’ (after failing with depleted conventional forces, rag-tag militias…)’

Hertling argued Russian’s rushed training process coupled with their use of questionable recruits was sure to spell disaster for their offensive.

‘…recruiting prisoners & using paramilitaries like the Wagner group) will be extremely difficult,’ he wrote.

‘And placing “newbies” on a front line that has been mauled, has low morale & who don’t want to be portends more RU disaster.’

‘Jaw-dropping. A new sign of RU weakness.’

Google search data suggests Russians are considering desperate measures to get out of the catastrophic conscription Hertling predicted.

The search engine measures search terms on a scale of zero to 100 – zero denoting less popular terms and 100 more.

When Putin delivered his address announcing the conscription at 2am EST Wednesday,  searches for “how to break an arm at home” clocked in at zero, according to Newsweek, meaning they were so low they didn’t even track on the scale.

However, by just 4am EST, searches for that term in Russia had spiked to 38 out of 100.

Hertling explained how the US Army drills about 150,000 recruits per year in ten weeks of rigorous basic training, then sends them off to specialized training before the troops ‘report to their units ready to be integrated in the specific mission’

Hertling argued Russian’s rushed training process coupled with their use of questionable recruits was sure to spell disaster for their offensive

Putin’s draft is set to become effective on Wednesday.

Currently only individuals with previous military experience are eligible.

After Putin’s announcement, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured the Russians that only 300,000 people with “previous military experience” would be eligible.

The conscription comes as Russia struggles to fill its ranks on the Ukrainian front. Military officials have been spotted trying to recruit violent criminals from the nation’s prisons to join the fight.