The Russian Defense Ministry announces the end of partial mobilization in the country. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy expresses doubts about the announcement. Moscow is forced to mobilize more forces to compensate for losses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects further partial mobilization of reservists in Russia for the war against his country. “We are preparing for it,” said Zelenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv in the evening. He was reacting to the end of the call-up of 300,000 reservists for the war against Ukraine announced by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.
Partial mobilization is controversial in Russian society – also because it means that the war is becoming tangible in most families for the first time. Many conscripts have since been transferred back to Russia in coffins.
Zelenskyy stressed that the Ukrainian resistance is so strong that Russia will be forced to order new mobilizations. The Russian troops are so poorly trained and equipped that the country will soon have to mobilize more people, said the President, referring to the losses among Russian soldiers.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left the country for fear of being drafted into military service. In Russia, many jobs are orphaned because people are either serving in the war or fleeing. The fact that Putin now announced the end of the mobilization was seen as an attempt to lure men back into the country. However, experts warn against returning to Russia because the end of partial mobilization still has to be sealed by a presidential decree. So far this has not happened.
Zelenskyj once again commented on the power outages in the country caused by the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russian missiles. Four million Ukrainians are currently living with the restrictions. Among other things, the capital Kyiv, the Sumy and Kharkiv regions are affected. In the occupied regions, the Russian occupiers also stole medical equipment from hospitals to destabilize the situation. The Cherson region in the south is affected, for example, which is making Russia a zone without civilization through evacuations.
Zelenskyy thanked the US for a new $275 million military aid package that will help liberate the occupied territories. He especially praised Canada for being the first country to issue bonds worth half a billion dollars to help Ukraine. Zelenskyj also informed about a phone call with the new Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom he discussed questions of cooperation in various fields.
