Russian Defence Ministry pressures Putin to announce new wave of mobilisation - WSJ
Officials of the Russian Ministry of Defence are putting pressure on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to announce a new wave of mobilisation for a ‘war of attrition’ against Ukraine.
According to Censor.NET, The Wall Street Journal reports this with reference to its own sources.
As noted, a few months before his inauguration, Putin met with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defence, who insisted on a new wave of mobilisation to attract additional troops and compensate for Russia's losses on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In a meeting with Putin earlier this year, defence ministry officials said he should use his inauguration and growing political support to justify the need for mobilisation. But Putin rejected this suggestion, as he was well aware of the unrest that followed the mobilisation in 2022.
A WSJ source said that Putin said he wanted to use only those who voluntarily sign military contracts in the war.
However, the pressure for a new mobilisation comes as Russian casualties in the war in Ukraine have reached about one million.
The newspaper's journalists argue that more than a month has passed since the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the Kursk region, "and Moscow has not yet organised a major counter-offensive to push back Ukrainian troops".
According to the source, "more and more people are talking about the inevitability of mobilisation".
"The weakness of the Russian military became painfully apparent during Russia's offensive earlier this year on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. Russian troops advanced, but the offensive, launched in May and lasting all summer, caused heavy casualties and was halted by the Ukrainians," the WSJ writes.
The Russian Federation also fears that the mobilisation will upset the delicate balance in the public perception of the war.
"Tying more Russians to the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine could have dangerous political consequences for Putin," the newspaper concludes.
Earlier, Censor.NET reported that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had issued a decree increasing the number of personnel in the Russian Armed Forces to 2 million 389 thousand people. The number of Russian military personnel will increase to 1.5 million.
