With depleted arsenal in 5th month of war, Russia seeks to force companies, workers to pitch in

The Russian government is poised to enact legislation that can force companies to supply the country's military and demand employees work overtime in an effort to help rebuild an arsenal that's been depleted after nearly five months of war in Ukraine.

While the country moves to mobilize its factories, a recruitment drive is also underway for workers who can help rebuild the ruinous areas where Russia has already claimed victory.

Russia has seen some military success in recent weeks with the capture of Lysychansk, which now gives it complete control over all of Luhansk, a region in Eastern Ukraine that was partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists prior to the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

But Russia's bloody conquest has come at a great cost to its own military, both in lives and equipment.

According to an open-source investigation that analyzed images posted online, Russia has lost thousands of tanks and armoured fighting vehicles, which have either been destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured.

"It's starting to show its impact because Russia started the initial offensive with a lot of relatively modern tanks, and gradually they have been replacing them with equipment that is 30, 40 years old and now even older," said Jakub Janovsky, who collaborated on a recent open-source investigation.

Janovsky, who lives in the Czech Republic, works in telecommunications. But in his spare time, he logs on to his computer and — with other online investigators — tracks military equipment deployed in Ukraine. They scan social media for images and record the individual pieces of equipment in a database.

He previously did the same with military campaigns in Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Janovsky and his peers catalogue vehicles and aircraft only if they can find images of the individual pieces of equipment, and their recent report notes that the true losses are likely "significantly higher."

In an interview with CBC News, he said it was "ridiculous" to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaim on July 7 that Russia hasn't yet "started anything" in earnest in Ukraine.

"If they continue to lose troops and equipment in Ukraine, there won't be any Russian army left there," Janovsky said.

Given how many of its military vehicles have been destroyed or damaged, Janovsky said it isn't surprising that Russia would want to pass legislation to compel factories and workers to produce more equipment.

Two pieces of legislation are making their way through Russia's parliament.

The first bill, which would require companies to fulfil defence contracts, has passed through both the lower and upper houses of parliament. The other bill would make a change to the labour code requiring employees to work overtime. It's still waiting for approval from the upper house. Both pieces of legislation will have to be approved by Putin.