Russia has no present need to mobilise more men for its Ukraine offensive, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, describing speculation about another military call-up as Ukrainian “disinformation”.
That order, which the Kremlin said applied to 300,000 people only out of population of around 140 million, was highly unpopular and prompted an exodus of draft-age men from Russia.
“This is a disinformation campaign by the enemy in the run-up to the State Duma elections, aimed at influencing the outcome,” he said, referring to Russian parliamentary elections later this month. “As is well known, our people enlist voluntarily and sign a contract,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in July that Moscow was preparing for a “new wave of mobilisation in the autumn”, having suffered heavy losses on the front. The Institute for the Study of War — a US-based think tank — said in July that Moscow appeared to be setting the “conditions” for another round of mobilisation, citing recently-passed legislation allowing the army to recruit more types of convicts in wartime. Mobilisation remains a “very personal decision for Putin and is ultimately contingent on Putin’s personal perception of the battlefield situation and the Kremlin’s stability,” it said.
