Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Friday the completion of the “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservists announced by Moscow in September to fight in Ukraine .
In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin , broadcast on state television, Shoigu told the president: “The task set by you to (mobilize) 300,000 people has been completed. No further action is planned.”
Shoigu said that of the 300,000 recruits mobilized, 218,000 were still in training. Meanwhile, 82,000 had been deployed in the conflict zone, of which 41,000 had been assigned to their units.
Future recruitment for the Ukraine campaign, he said, will be based on volunteers and professional soldiers, rather than mobilizing more of Russia’s several million reservists.
Putin declared a “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservists on September 21, after a series of military defeats saw Russian forces pushed out of the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine and come under increasing pressure. in the Kherson region in the south.
The move sparked an exodus of military-age men from Russia, with tens of thousands heading to countries like Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan that allow Russians to enter without a visa.
More than 2,000 people were arrested in the protests against the mobilization throughout Russia. There were public protests over the cases of men who were mobilized despite having medical exemptions or lack of military experience.
In response to Shoigu, Putin acknowledged the mobilization problems, saying they were “inevitable”, and stated that “corrections” in the development of the Russian armed forces need to be made.
