Ukraine alleges that the Kremlin is on the brink of mobilizing another 300,000 troops later this year in order to make up for significant battlefield losses.
"Russia has lost 267,000 personnel since the start of the year, including around 155,000 killed to date," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in remarks released Sunday. "We are confident that following the elections, they will carry out a mobilization. We believe this will not take place in the major cities."
Border crossing into the Republic of Georgia, via AFPZelensky further asserted his belief that Putin would "deploy the 300,000 newly mobilized troops depending on the situation in the east of our country."
Neither side has ever issued public war casualty figures, and so Zelensky's claim of the massive number of Russia soldiers killed remains impossible to evaluate accurately.
But as for preparations for a new wave of mobilization on the Russian side, The Wall Street Journal says that this rings true. The publication has chronicled some anecdotal evidence, seeing signs of serious preparation.
"Last month Russian military officers flew from St. Petersburg to the country’s Kaliningrad exclave nestled between two NATO countries and the Baltic Sea," WSJ reports. "There the officers oversaw readiness planning and procedures for a mobilization of the region’s residents, with details on how to house, feed and arm them, said Western intelligence officials."
Speaking more of the
