Kyiv Post Daily Thread – The Latest News From and About Ukraine on March 23

The Russian military has launched its latest advertising campaign to attract more contract servicemen for offensive operations in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense is offering new inducements to those who sign a contract to join Russia's Armed Forces, the local newspaper in Yaroslavl region "76 RU" has reported.  

According to the publication, over the last week, a number of posts have appeared, on local social media accounts in the Yaroslavl region, as well as in regional media and on the websites of city administrations, aimed at potential recruits.

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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the powerful founder of mercenary group Wagner, is preparing to scale back his private army’s operations in Ukraine after Russian military chiefs succeeded in cutting key supplies of men and munitions, people familiar with the matter said.

Seen as an increasing threat by the security and political establishment, Prigozhin is struggling with a manpower and ammunition shortage in Ukraine after he was barred from recruiting from prisons, his primary source of recruits, and deprived of supplies. Wagner troops so far have failed to take their main target - the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut - despite months of trying and staggering losses. Now, Prigozhin is planning to shift focus back to Africa, the people said.

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A trainload of obsolete, museum-grade T-54 tanks was spotted on a transport train heading west from a Russian military repair base, news reports said on Thursday.

Still images and videos geolocated to Russia’s far-eastern Primorsky region showed at least 14 outdated combat vehicles aboard flatcars rolling past a rail crossing. Screen grabs by the Georgia-based Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) showed some clearly identifiable as the T-54B model.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday was visiting the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson partially controlled by Russian forces, after Kyiv's troops captured the regional capital late last year.

"Working trip to Kherson region. The village of Posad Pokrovske, where houses and civilian infrastructural facilities were damaged as a result of Russia's full-scale invasion. I talked to the locals about their problems and needs," Zelensky said in a post on social media.

A senior Ukrainian military commander said Thursday that a counter-attack could be launched soon against "exhausted" Russian forces near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the stage for the longest battle of Moscow's invasion.

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Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has warned that attempts to arrest Vladimir Putin abroad after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant against him would be seen by Moscow as a “declaration of war”.

Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012, has made increasingly hawkish speeches since Putin sent troops to Ukraine, repeatedly issuing nuclear threats.

Late on Wednesday, he said Russian weapons would hit a country if it arrested Putin.

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While the brutal physical fighting continues on the frontlines in Ukraine, the war of words over Russia’s full-scale invasion heated up slightly on Wednesday evening.

Who’s the idiot? Find out here.