In his speech, Putin reiterated that Russia’s goal is “to liberate eastern Ukraine from neo-Nazis”.
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So far, Russia has consistently refrained from a general mobilization because Putin fears it would create too much unrest among the people. Since this is now a “partial mobilization”, only experienced military reservists are called, Defense Minister Shoygu later explained. According to the minister, this is about 300,000 men. “We have huge reserves: 25 million people.”
Special operation
This has not happened so far, as Russia itself claims that it is not at war, but that it is simply conducting a “special operation” in Ukraine.
This partial mobilization comes after the heavy losses suffered by the Russian army in recent weeks on the battlefield, where Ukraine is enjoying great success and has regained territory from the Russians.
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Putin was supposed to give his speech last night, but there was an unexpected postponement until today. Olaf Koens, correspondent in Russia for 10 years, says: “I’ve never tried this before. It’s really crazy that a Putin speech is canceled at the last minute.”
‘History books’
We won’t soon know what exactly caused the postponement, Koens thinks. “We could read it in the history books in 30 years.”
There are several reasons to think: “It is possible that the French president called Macron and said: Vladimir, we still have to talk about those referendums. But it could have been different. Russia is war in the east. All kinds of people. they are accused of this, for example the command of the army. It may have caused a riot behind the scenes, but is it so big that the speech must be canceled?
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Yesterday it was announced that four regions of Ukraine will hold a “referendum” on joining the Russian Federation next week.
To incorporate
The so-called referanda will take place from 23 to 27 September in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. They are seen as bogus referendums: the Russian government considers it important to annex the areas, so there is no real choice.
Russia wants to hurry now that Ukraine has regained more and more territories. If Russia recognizes the areas as Russian territory, the war could change. This also means that from then on Russia regards them as its own country, on which it claims it will not tolerate attacks.
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An attack by Ukraine on those four areas would therefore mean that Russia is being attacked. “In the eyes of Russia, that would mean Ukraine is at war with Russia,” defense expert Dick Zandee said. “Then it would be an all-out war, rather than a military operation as Russia calls it today.”
keep attacking
Zandee expects Ukraine to ignore the annexation and continue to attack those regions. “Ukraine naturally wants to continue liberating that piece of land. They will still see it as Ukrainian territory. After all, they have already attacked Crimea, precisely because Russia did not respond,” says Zandee.
Just yesterday, the Russian parliament a law for that leaving the army illegally during mobilization punishes more severely. Voluntary surrender becomes a crime for Russian military personnel, punishable by 10 years in prison.
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