Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia on Wednesday as the war in Ukraine enters nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield. Putin also warned the West that it is “not a bluff” for Russia to use all means at its disposal to protect its territory.
The total number of reservists called up for partial mobilization is 300,000, officials said.
Putin said the decision to partially mobilize was “fully appropriate to the threats we face, namely to protect our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories “.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised interview on Wednesday that conscripts and students would not be mobilized, only those with relevant combat and service experience.
Shoigu said 5,397 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine so far, the Kremlin’s first casualty update since March. Western estimates of Russian military losses are in the tens of thousands.
The Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to toughen laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian troops. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison terms for soldiers who refuse to fight. The measures are expected to be approved by the upper house and then signed by Putin.
In a statement to The Associated Press, a spokesman for the Ukrainian president said that recruits sent to the front lines in Ukraine will face a fate similar to that of ill-prepared Russian forces who were repulsed in an attack on Kyiv in the first days of the invasion.
“This is a recognition of the inability of the professional Russian army, which has failed in all its tasks,” said Sergii Nikoforov. “As we see, the Russian authorities intend to compensate for this with violence and repression against their own people. The sooner it stops, the fewer Russian children will go to die at the front.”
“It’s not a bluff”
Putin accused the West of engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and pointed to “statements by some senior representatives of major NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”
“To those who are allowed such statements about Russia, I want to remind them that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate and more modern components than those of NATO countries, and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all means at our disposal,” Putin said.
He added: “It’s not a bluff.”
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In his late-night speech, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said there were many questions surrounding Putin’s announcements, but stressed they would not change Ukraine’s commitment to retake areas occupied by Russian forces.
“The situation on the front line clearly indicates that the initiative belongs to Ukraine,” he said. “Our positions do not change because of noise or any announcement somewhere. And we enjoy the full support of our partners in this.”
Rebequeries from the US and the UK
The development comes as US President Joe Biden tells world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday morning that Russia’s “bare aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what it stands for the international body as it seeks to gather allies. by supporting the Ukrainian resistance.
“He will offer a strong rebuke of Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine and call on the world to continue to stand up to the bare-bones aggression we’ve seen in recent months,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in a preview. the president’s address.
A Ukrainian military man checks a destroyed Russian armored personnel carrier (APC) in the city of Izium, recently liberated by the Ukrainian armed forces, on Tuesday. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
The United States has provided nearly $16 billion in aid to Ukraine since Biden took office.
US leaders have made clear that precision weapons and rocket systems provided by the US and its allies, including the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and the anti-radiation missile high speed, or HARM, have been key to the dramatic shift in momentum in recent weeks that has seen Ukraine liberate a number of towns and cities.
Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Putin’s move was “an admission that his invasion is failing”.
“He and his defense minister have sent tens of thousands of citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and ill-led,” Wallace said in a statement. “No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning this war, the international community is united, and Russia is becoming a global pariah.”
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Canada denounces “sham” referendums in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine
“This is just an appalling affront to the concept of democratic choice … and I think it’s a defensive move by Russia,” says Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the UN.
Putin’s televised speech on Wednesday came a day after Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes to become part of Russia.
The referendums, expected to take place since the first months of the war that began on February 24, will begin on Friday in the regions of Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, which are partly controlled by Russia. Those votes are sure to go Moscow’s way, but have been dismissed as illegitimate by Western leaders who back Kyiv with military and other support that has helped its forces gain momentum on the battlefields of the east and the south.
On the battlefield, shelling continued around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied town of Enerhodar. Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom said Russian shelling again damaged infrastructure at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and briefly forced workers to start two diesel generators to provide emergency power to the plant’s cooling pumps one of the reactors.
These bombs are essential to prevent a meltdown at a nuclear facility even though the plant’s six reactors have been shut down. Energoatom said the generators were later shut down as main power was restored.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been a focus of concern for months over fears that the bombings could lead to a radiation leak. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the bombing