Russia says 335,000 sign up to fight, no plans for new mobilisation

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu stated on Tuesday that Russia does not have plans for an additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine. This is because more than 335,000 individuals have already signed up this year to join the armed forces or voluntary units. Russia has been strengthening its armed forces and increasing weapons production in anticipation of a prolonged war in Ukraine, where the front lines have hardly shifted in the past year. Shoigu emphasised that the armed forces possess sufficient personnel for conducting the special military operation during a televised meeting with top generals. He praised the patriotism exhibited by those who have enlisted, revealing that over 335,000 people have joined military service under contract or in volunteer formations since the beginning of the year, with more than 50,000 signing contracts in September alone.

These figures indicate that Russia has made significant progress in recruiting and incorporating members of the Wagner mercenary force into “voluntary formations.” In September last year, President Vladimir Putin ordered a “partial mobilisation” of 300,000 reservists, which prompted hundreds of thousands of young men to flee Russia to avoid being deployed to combat. Putin has since stated that there is no need to repeat the mobilisation due to the number of individuals who left as a result.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has resulted in a devastating war that has greatly affected eastern and southern Ukraine. It has caused the deaths or injuries of hundreds of thousands of individuals and led to the severest strain on Russia’s relations with the West in six decades. Putin argues that he is fighting a Western alliance engaged in a proxy war aimed at diminishing Russia politically and militarily, while Western leaders assert that their economic sanctions and military support for Ukraine are direct responses to Moscow’s aggression. The future direction of the war remains uncertain, though earlier this year, U.S. officials predicted that Russia’s defeat on the Ukrainian battlegrounds would puncture Putin’s arrogance.

While Ukraine successfully reclaimed territory from Russia last year in attacks that humiliated the Russian armed forces, this year has seen a different outcome. In the month leading up to September 26, Russia gained 31 square miles, while Ukraine only gained 16 square miles, according to the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Both sides have ambitious war goals: Ukraine aims to expel all Russian soldiers from its territory, while Russia intends to demilitarise Ukraine. Mark Milley, who retired as U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff last month, stated that the fight would be long, difficult, and bloody due to Russia’s substantial presence of over 200,000 troops in Ukraine. The task of removing all these soldiers will require significant time and effort, as Milley pointed out. The Kremlin expects the United States to continue providing tens of billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine, but Putin is relying on Western weariness of the conflict to prevail.

“We have repeatedly stated that, according to our forecasts, fatigue from this conflict and the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime will grow in various countries, including the United States,” stated Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Kevin Liffey, and Nick Macfie)