Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had received confirmation that Russia is preparing a mobilization campaign for this autumn and that Ukraine is preparing active measures in response.
“There was a report from the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine — from Oleh Ivashchenko — on preparations for Russian mobilization. Everything is confirmed by internal Russian documents: they are preparing it for the autumn, immediately after the imitation of parliamentary elections. Putin’s plan is not particularly complicated: he wants to create the impression that Russians supposedly support the war — all the parties that have been allowed to participate so far are, one way or another, against peace. Then, after the so-called elections, he plans an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year, and roughly the same number next year,” Zelensky said.
According to him, this mobilization would come on top of the ongoing recruitment of contract servicemen.
The president said Russian forces in Ukraine are losing at least 30,000 personnel every month, 60% of them killed. As a result, the overall size of Russia’s occupying force in Ukraine has been gradually declining due to Ukraine’s active operations and the use of drones.
“Putin now believes that additional mobilization and the involvement of North Korean troops will allow him to prolong this war and increase Russian assault activity. We are preparing our own active measures to make it as difficult as possible for Russia to implement these plans. I have assigned the relevant tasks to our intelligence agencies and special services,” Zelensky said.
He also described the removal of the Yabloko party from the elections in Russia as evidence that Vladimir Putin has no intention of ending the war against Ukraine.
“Ukraine certainly does not need this war. If Putin wants war so badly that he has now resorted to yet another blatant political manipulation with his pseudo-elections — to the point that he was afraid to see even a single party on the ballot that said anything at all about the need for peace, and removed Yabloko — then his priorities are absolutely clear,” the president said.
Zelensky also said that Ukraine had presented its proposals to the United States:
“America can help strengthen our defence, above all with air defence, and put pressure on Russia so that the plans are different: preparing to end the war rather than prolonging it.”
