As the country with the second most powerful military in the world, Russia sparked a question mark when it came to planning to use mercenaries to attack Ukraine.
Aaron Stein, director of research at the US think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute, said he was confused because the mercenary forces targeted by Russia had proven to be incompetent.
Stein expressed his confusion after seeing a number of reports stating that Russia was recruiting combatants from Syria to help seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia hoped the Syrian militia's expertise in urban warfare, such as Aleppo and Homs, could help Russian troops. However, Stein considers the Syrian militia to be incompetent.
"I can't imagine what they need from the Syrian mercenaries. They are so untrained and useless," Stein told Al-Monitor.
He later said, "Maybe the Russians just needed [another] body to stand up and get shot."
Based on Global Fire Power, Russia currently ranks second out of a total of 140 countries that have military forces.
The country of the Red Bear has a total of 1.35 million soldiers, consisting of 850 thousand active soldiers, 250 thousand reserve soldiers, and the remaining 250 thousand paramilitaries.
Russia has 4,173 warplanes and more than 2,000 helicopters. They also have 12,420 tanks, 3,391 rocket launchers, and 70 submarines.
Other observers think that Russia uses mercenaries because of the difficulty of dealing with Ukrainian resistance which is considered "beyond expectations." A large Russian military convoy stalled north of Kyiv is one indication.
Meanwhile, a PhD candidate who is researching Russian defense policy at King's College London's Department of War Studies, Rob Lee, argues that Moscow is already starting to run out of troops.
"Obviously Russia needs more troops for Ukraine. They are probably using conscripts who shouldn't be fighting," he said.
However, President Vladimir Putin ensured that Russia would not field citizens who were following military service to join the fight in Ukraine.
"Soldiers who are conscripted will not join the fight. Operations are carried out only by professional forces. I believe they effectively guarantee security and peace," Putin said, as reported by AFP.