Russian authorities are planning to "expand mobilization" in autumn this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, citing intelligence services. According to Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing to recruit additional Russian soldiers to fight in the war against Ukraine.
"He is concealing his intention behind different words and signals, but he is making preparations," Zelenskyy said. "It is important that we, together with our partners, exert sufficient pressure on Russia so that the idea of ending this aggression — the idea of peace, rather than further Russian mobilization — prevails," he added. The Ukrainian president also said Russia's army was losing more fighters at the front than it can recruit, even though Putin wants to intensify the attacks and expand the war.
Putin issued a decree in autumn 2022 launching a "partial mobilization," which remains in effect to this day, as confirmed by the presidential administration in 2023. The document, it said, "regulates additional measures necessary to ensure that the armed forces fulfill their objectives."Scores of Russians fled abroad after the Kremlin announced a partial mobilization in September 2022Image: AP/picture alliance
