Desperate Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the maximum age of mobilised troops – so some 70- year-olds could be sent to the frontline.
New laws set by Moscow mean reservist males who hold the highest ranks such as General can be called back to the front up to aged 70 instead of 65.
Lesser ranking officers, such as seniors, can be drafted back into service aged 65 and junior officers can be sent to the frontline at the age of 60.
Ordinary troops who have completed compulsory service and are now reservists can be dragged back into the military aged 55 maximum, rather than 45.
Thousands of fighting age men are already believed to have fled Russia out of fear they could be drafted into Putin’s bloody war as more cannon fodder.
The Russian military is facing massive losses of troops killed and injured in the war, mainly being fought along a 600 mile frontline in Eastern Ukraine.
Russian media have dared to admit that as many as 47,000 Russian soldiers have been killed – although the Ukrainians claim the figure is more like 240,000.
And the Wagner Group mercenaries who have done the brunt of the fighting in the east are in chaos following a bungled coup march on Moscow.
Military doctrine is now being taught in many Russian schools, preparing young boys for the possibility of a long and drawn-out conflict.
Officially Moscow only admits 6,000 soldiers have died although the public is fast becoming aware of the ‘meat grinder’ fighting that is killing their men.
The port of Odesa was hit for a second time in 48 hours, wounding at least six people, including a nine year-old boy.
It came days after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing famine.
It also followed a vow by Putin to retaliate for an attack Monday on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.
