The war in Ukraine is a meat grinder for both sides, more reminiscent of World War I than of II. I have imagined Russia filling its many vacancies due to death and injuries using coercion, but apparently that is mostly not the case. I’ve read that only enlistees have been sent to fight in Ukraine, draftees must serve within Russia itself.
If what we’re being told is true, the carrot is used much more than the stick. It’s a poor country with an indifferent economy. Offering signing bonuses and relatively decent wages has been enough to lure men in economically marginal lives to enlist. That plus emptying the prisons by offering the alternative of military service.
The Russian way of war treats infantry nearly as expendably as artillery rounds. A hard-eyed Darwinian would see Putin and his generals improving the Russian genome by culling their society’s losers - those who can’t manage money, stay sober, keep a job, or default to crime to pay bills.
Oil money is what makes this mercenary strategy possible, in an otherwise relatively poor country. If he can seriously restrict the market for Russian oil, Trump may be able to strangle the supply of rubles that enables the Putin war machine.