Russia reported having completed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists summoned a little over a month ago to reinforce the offensive in Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Friday in a television intervention with President Vladimir Putin.
“The task of recruiting 300,000 people has been accomplished” and “41,000 of those troops have already been integrated into military units in Ukraine,” Shoigu told Putin, praising the “patriotism” of the recruits.
The minister added that Russia continues to enlist volunteers and soldiers under contract.
Putin announced on September 21 a partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists to reinforce the Russian contingents in Ukraine.
Shoigu specified that 82,000 were sent to Ukraine and that 41,000 have already been integrated into military units. The other 218,000 are receiving training in Russia, he added.
Putin asked his minister to thank the mobilized soldiers for “their dedication to duty, their patriotism” and for “defending their country and therefore their homes.”
Some reports of the convocation under the flag of elderly or sick people and students provoked outrage in Russia.
Putin admitted that there were “inevitable” problems at the beginning of the mobilization. Shoigu assured him that all complications had already been resolved.
The call for reservists has sparked an exodus of men of military age and protests in Russia.
