For the purpose of boosting the morale of the soldiers engaged in combat, Russia said that musicians would be stationed at the front lines of the continuing conflict in Ukraine. The defence ministry last week announced the creation of a ‘front-line creative brigade’ that would comprise both musicians and vocalists. The UK Ministry of Defence’s Sunday intelligence report made note of the formation of the musicians’ brigade.
The government of Russia said that Sergei Shoigu, the country’s minister of defence, paid a visit to the Russian frontline soldiers deployed to Ukraine. In a statement shared on Telegram, the defence ministry said that Shoigu had ‘flew over the troop staging locations and examined the advanced positions of Russian soldiers in the region of the special military operation’.
The minister ‘talked with troops on the frontline’ and at a ‘command post,’ the statement claimed. The minister’s visit occurs at a time when UK defence sources asserted that low morale has turned into a ‘major vulnerability throughout most of the Russian army’. The UK said that the musicians’ brigade is comparable to how ‘military music and organised entertainment’ was traditionally used to enhance the army’s morale. The musicians’ brigade is to be deployed shortly after a campaign encouraging individuals to donate musical instruments to army personnel.
The UK authorities, however, questioned if the musicians’ brigade would divert the army troops who are worried about ‘extremely high fatality rates, bad leadership, pay problems, shortage of equipment and ammunition, and lack of clarity about the war’s aims’. The musicians’ brigade would consist of both ‘professional artists who willingly entered military service’ and hopefuls who were mobilised as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recruiting push. The new unit would be tasked with preserving ‘a high moral, political, and psychological status (among) the members of the special military operation’.
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