Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a partial mobilization in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield. Putin also warned the West that "it's not a bluff" that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect its territory.
The total number of reservists drafted in the partial mobilization is 300,000, officials said.
Putin said the decision to partially mobilize was "fully adequate to the threats we face, namely to protect our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to ensure the security of our people and people in the liberated territories."
The development came just hours before U.S. President Joe Biden's address to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Biden excoriated the "brutal, needless war chosen by one man" as a violation of the UN's charter, as well as the "sham referenda" Russia has planned for later in the week to consolidate authority over territories in Ukraine it controls.
"If nations can pursue their imperialist ambitions without consequences, then we put at risk everything this institution stands for," Biden said.
The U.S. — which has contributed nearly $16 billion in aid to Ukraine since Biden took office — would be "clear, firm and unwavering in our resolve," Biden said, to defend democracy both in Ukraine and around the world.
WATCH l Mobilizing, training that many troops will 'take a long time': military expert:
In a statement to The Associated Press, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian president said conscripts sent to the front line in Ukraine would face a similar fate as ill-prepared Russian forces who were repelled in an attack on Kyiv in the first days of the invasion.
"This is a recognition of the incapacity of the Russian professional army, which has failed in all its tasks," said Sergii Nikoforov. "As we can see, the Russian authorities intend to compensate for this with violence and repression against their own people. The sooner it stops, the fewer Russian sons will go to die at the front."
Nuclear threat 'not a bluff'
Putin in his speech accused the West of engaging in "nuclear blackmail" and noted "statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia."
"To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries, and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal," Putin said.
He added: "It's not a bluff."
Putin's new nuclear threats against Europe showed "reckless disregard" for Russia's responsibilities as a signer of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Biden said at the UN in New York.
"A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," said Biden.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised interview Wednesday that conscripts and students won't be mobilized — only those with relevant combat and service experience.
Shoigu said that 5,397 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine so far, the Kremlin's first update on casualties since March. Western estimates of Russian military losses stand at tens of thousands.
The Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament voted Tuesday to toughen laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian troops. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison terms for soldiers refusing to fight. The measures are expected to be approved by the upper house and then signed by Putin.
Zelenskky dismisses Russian 'noise'
Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to make an address to the UN General Assembly from Ukraine later Wednesday.
In his nightly address on Tuesday, Zelenskky said there were lots of questions surrounding Putin's announcements but stressed that they would not change Ukraine's commitment to retake areas occupied by Russian forces.
"The situation on the front line clearly indicates that the initiative belongs to Ukraine," he said. "Our positions do not change because of the noise or any announcements somewhere. And we enjoy the full support of our partners in this."
Ukraine has liberated a number of towns and cities in the past month, enabled in large part by precision weapons and rocket systems provided by the U.S. and allies — including the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile, or HARM.
On the battlefield, shelling continued around Europe's largest nuclear power plant In the Russian-occupied city of Enerhodar. Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom said Russian shelling again damaged infrastructure at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and briefly forced workers to start two diesel generators for emergency power to the cooling pumps for one of the reactors.
Such pumps are essential for avoiding a meltdown at a nuclear facility even though all six of the plant's reactors have been shut down. Energoatom said the generators were later switched off as main power was restored.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been a focus of concern for months because of fears that shelling could lead to a radiation leak. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling
Referendums, which have been expected to take place since the first months of the war that began on Feb. 24, will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Those votes are all but certain to go Moscow's way, but have been dismissed as illegitimate by Western leaders who are backing Kyiv with military and other support that has helped its forces seize momentum on battlefields in the east and south.
Putin mobilizes more troops for Ukraine war, threatens enemies - CBC News
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