Putin calls up military reservists for ‘partial mobilisation’ to secure Ukraine gains

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a televised speech on Wednesday, announcing the “partial mobilization” of military reservists to the Ukraine, primarily those who served in the armed forces and with specific military occupational specialties.

The reservists will undergo mandatory additional military training as Russia prepares to hold referenda in what it calls the Donbass people’s republics, which it secured in the Crimean invasion of 2014, and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions where it retains control since its February 2022 invasion.

But Russia has since been forced on the back foot by the attacks of the Ukranian army against its invaders.

In his speech, Putin claimed the “deeply echeloned line of permanent defences” by Kiev had made it impossible to repel. “A head-on attack against them would have led to heavy losses, which is why our units, as well as the forces of the Donbass republics, are acting competently and systematically, using military equipment and saving lives, moving step by step to liberate Donbass, purge cities and towns of the neo-Nazis, and help the people whom the Kiev regime turned into hostages and human shields.”

Putin now claims the Russian invasion’s main goals were to defend the Donbass – the Luhansk and Donetsk republics – and claimed to have “liberated considerable areas” in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporozhye regions over a “protracted line of contact” of 1,000km long. “The main goal of this operation, which is to liberate the whole of Donbass, remains unaltered.”

Putin accused Ukraine of bringing into play “new groups of foreign mercenaries and nationalists, military units trained according to NATO standards and receiving orders from Western advisers” against the Russian invaders.

Putin accused the West of attempting to “weaken” Russia. “They are saying openly now that in 1991 they managed to split up the Soviet Union and now is the time to do the same to Russia, which must be divided into numerous regions that would be at deadly feud with each other.”

Putin also accused the West of resorting to nuclear blackmail, claiming it encouraged the shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, and that high-ranking representatives of NATO countries had spoken about the use of WMDs against Russia.

“Our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff…”

“It is our historical tradition and the destiny of our nation to stop those who are keen on global domination and threaten to split up and enslave our Motherland. Rest assured that we will do it this time as well.”