Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield. 9News
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of reservists in Russia, in a measure that appeared to be an admission that Moscow's war against Ukraine isn't going according to plan after nearly seven months of fighting.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the partial mobilisation of Russian reservists a "big tragedy" for the Russian people. Another clause in the decree prevents most professional soldiers from terminating their contracts and leaving service until the partial mobilisation is no longer in place.
The mobilisation is unlikely to bring any consequences on the battlefield for months because of a lack of training facilities and equipment.The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, tweeted that the mobilisation is a sign "of weakness, of Russian failure." Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said Putin's announcement smacked of "an act of desperation.""People will evade this mobilisation in every possible way, bribe their way out of this mobilisation, leave the country," Oreshkin told the AP in an interview Wednesday.
The referendums, which have been expected to take place since the first months of the war, will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.The war, which has killed thousands of people, has driven up food prices worldwide and caused energy costs to soar.