Russia has completed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists in just over a month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Friday during a televised exchange with President Vladimir Putin. “The task of recruiting 300,000 people has been accomplished,” Sergei Shoigu told Russian television, sitting opposite Vladimir Putin, adding that 41,000 of them are already deployed in military units in Ukraine. The Russian president hailed the “patriotism” of the mobilized soldiers.
41,000 other people still in training
“No additional tasks are planned,” he said, indicating that Russia does not plan to mobilize additional reservists, civilians, in the immediate future. He added, however, that Russia continued to recruit volunteers and contract soldiers. According to the minister, 218,000 reservists are being trained in Russian military bases, 41,000 are deployed in military units fighting in Ukraine, and 41,000 others are in the conflict zone but are still in training.
“I want to thank everyone who joined the ranks of the armed forces,” said Vladimir Putin: “Thank you for this loyalty to duty, for this patriotism”. The Russian president, like his minister, once again admitted the failures of this mobilization, which saw many people who were not in themselves eligible find themselves incorporated as well as shortages of equipment.
Equipment issues now “fixed”
But Sergei Shoigu assured Friday that all equipment problems were now “settled”. The Russian president announced on September 21 the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, civilians, to consolidate his lines, while the Ukrainian army forced the Russian forces to retreat in several areas of the front, in particular in the northeast. and in the south.
The announcement had led to an exodus of a hard-to-quantify crowd of Russians who fled the country for fear of being sent to fight. Russia has also claimed the annexation of the four regions of eastern and southern Ukraine where almost the entire front line is located.