Russia is stepping
up recruitment for its war on Ukraine
with a new social media video
it appears to mock men
into leaving their everyday jobs
like security guards and taxi drivers
to become, quote, real men in combat.
CNN's Clare Sebastian is live in London.
Clare, great to see you.
I don't have much reaction there
except for it seems,
you know, whatever they think will work.
But what's the response
been online and in real life?
Well, this is a pretty new campaign.
That video came out just two days ago.
So it's hard to assess at the moment
its impact as a recruitment tool.
But it's very clear
that this is designed to recruit men
directly into the war in Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense uses the tagline,
which in Russian
translates roughly
as join
your own and plays on the Russian acronym
for special military operations.
So there's no doubt that look,
I think
to be fair, a lot of armies
do use
recruitment videos
that play on the ideas
of confidence, of strength, of manhood
in some ways.
But this also speaks
to Russia's challenges
that it's having in recruiting
trained personnel for the battlefield.
We saw
with that recruitment drive
back in the autumn
that they recruited 300,000
untrained personnel.
I think this is an
entirely different kind of recruitment
that we're seeing now
using the special military operation,
the war in Ukraine,
as a recruitment drive in itself.
We know they're trying to swell
the ranks of their professional army
by about 400,000 men.
So clearly
they are committing
also these kind of PR resources to that.
Obviously, it's jarring
looking at it from outside of Russia,
knowing what we know
about the kinds of casualties
they're facing on the battlefield.
The latest Pentagon
documents, documents suggesting
that about 43,000
Russians have been killed in combat.
That's just an estimate.
But I think
inside Russia, it's
worth noting that
a public service
announcements are pretty common
and secondly,
that it is a country
with very defined gender roles.
So I think
that play on the idea of manliness
may be more effective
than it seems from the outside.
Well,
and you touched on
the very serious aspect of this,
which is there is a marked difference
from what is being displayed
in AD versus
the reality on the ground
of the battlefield.
Clare Sebastian, thank you so much.
Ukraine is making a new push to do
one of the things that Russia tries
to prevent
with this invasion to join NATO allies.
The secretary general paid
a visit
to Kiev on Thursday
and met with President Vladimir Zelensky,
who made a new pitch for joining NATO's,
which could put it on a path
to a military conflict with Moscow.
The NATO's leader didn't offer
any timelines to key, but did say this
Ukraine's future
is in the Euro-Atlantic family.
Ukraine's future is in NATO's.
Moscow responded to Stoltenberg visit
saying that
keeping Ukraine
out of NATO's remains
one of its military goals.
Now, Ukraine's
allies are meeting in Germany to consider
next steps
in their assistance
to give US Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin
just spoke ahead of the meeting
of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
It's happening at the Ramstein Air Base
with defense ministers
and other officials
from more than 50 countries taking part.
And this all comes as we're
getting word
of a new Russian drone
strike on Ukraine's capital.
Sebastian is covering this for us
this morning.
Clare, what is the Lansky
hoping will be achieved
at this meeting about Ukraine?
So the Rammstein Contact Group meeting,
this is all about coordinating
and organizing new weapons supplies
essentially for Ukraine.
And I think his top priority right now
is air defense.
We know certainly
and this is sort of uncomfortable context
to the meeting for the US,
but we know
from those leaked Pentagon documents
that the belief is that
while Ukraine might have
a slight edge when it comes
to ground forces
because of the new weapons
that it's been getting
from the NATO allies,
the vulnerability is with air defense.
We've seen that
just now overnight with those attacks,
the drone attacks on the capital
for the first time,
according to the head
of the military administration, in Kiev,
the first time in 25 days.
But it is the second such overnight
barrage of drones this week
that continues to be
a part of the playbook.
They are pushing for more air defense
And I think the second thing
coming off that NATO
meeting in Kiev
with the NATO secretary
general, who, by the way,
has just arrived
at Ramstein, is security guarantees
ahead of that summit in Vilnius.
Take a
listen to what Jens Stoltenberg
had to say just a few moments ago.
Press the incidents.
Can I also
discuss the preparations for the upcoming
NATO summit in Vilnius in July?
I have invited him to attend the meeting,
and I'm glad that he has accepted
the invitation
and will attend the
NATO summit in Vilnius.
All NATO's allies have agreed
that Ukraine will become a NATO member
Well, president
he attending the NATO's
summit in Vilnius in Lithuania in July.
Will certainly be very unwelcome optics
for Moscow.
The NATO's secretary general
also saying he expects more weapons
pledges this week.
But he said that some of the focus
will be on what he called
the more boring stuff. Right.
So sustaining
the existing weapons platforms,
they already have fuel ammunition,
maintenance, pass
all of that stuff
to to keep the things
they've already got
going on the battlefield.
Class, Sebastiaan, thank you so much.