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.
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“The task of recruiting 300,000 people has been accomplished,” Mr. Shoigu told Russian television, sitting opposite Mr. Putin, adding that 41,000 of them are already deployed in military units in Ukraine.
“No additional tasks are planned,” he said, indicating that Russia does not plan any additional mobilization of 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 at Russian military bases, 41,000 are deployed in military units fighting in Ukraine, and another 41,000 are in the conflict zone but are still in training.
“I want to thank everyone who joined the ranks of the armed forces,” Putin said: “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 callable find themselves incorporated as well as shortages of equipment.
But Mr. Choigou assured Friday that all equipment problems were now “settled”.
The Russian president had announced on September 21 the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, civilians therefore, to consolidate his lines, while the Ukrainian army forced the retreat of Russian forces in several areas of the front, in particular in the north- east 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.
