- Ukraine’s military warns that Putin plans to mobilize up to half a million new troops.
- Ukrainian military intelligence said it believed the mobilization would be announced on January 15.
- “If Russia loses this time, Putin will collapse,” said the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence.
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The Ukrainian military warns that Putin plans to mobilize up to half a million new troops in preparation for a new offensive in Ukraine.
Speaking to German news site T-Online, Andriy Chernyak, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said they believe the mobilization will be announced on January 15, after Orthodox Christian Christmas.
Chernyak estimated 500,000 people would be mobilized, with those living in cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg being hardest hit.
Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said the recruits would be used in attacks beginning in the spring in eastern and southern Ukraine, the Evening Standard reported.
“We expect them to conduct offensives in Donetsk and Kharkiv regions and possibly Zaporizhia, but to defend in Kherson and Crimea, that’s the number of men they need for such a task,” Skibitsky said.
“If Russia loses this time, Putin will collapse,” Skibitsky reportedly said.
The new influx of manpower will massively increase the number of troops Russia has stationed in occupied Ukraine.
According to a Ukrainian official, 280,000 soldiers are currently grounded in Ukraine, according to the Evening Standard.
A second mobilization has been discussed for months.
In November, Russian regional leaders wrote to Putin, urging him to stop mobilizing reservists to fight in Ukraine.
According to the War Institute, pro-Kremlin military bloggers in Russia have been spreading claims that further mobilization will take place.
Russia has denied reports that a second wave of mobilizations is imminent and Putin last month claimed it was “pointless,” The Guardian reported.
Russia’s first mobilization of 300,000 troops in October was heavily criticized as many soldiers mobilized were untrained, old, ill or too young to fight.
There were reports of drunken brawls and indiscipline among the mobilized troops, with a recent incident leading to the assassination of a Russian military commander.