Putin orders troop conscription; makes another nuke threat
KYIV/NEW YORK/GDANSK, Poland • President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first wartime mobilization since World War Two on Wednesday, shocking citizens with what Western countries described as an act of desperation in the face of a losing war. Putin made the announcement in a televised address in which he also announced moves to annex swaths of Ukrainian territory and threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia, declaring: “It’s not a bluff”.
Flights out of Russia quickly sold out, and jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for mass demonstrations against the mobilization. Russians said some people were already receiving call-up notices, and police were barring men from leaving one city in the south. Independent protest monitoring group OVD-Info said more than 1,300 people had been detained in protests by Wednesday evening.
In a country that counts millions of former conscripts as reservists, Putin’s “partial mobilization” decree gave no clue as to who would be called up. Defense Secretary Sergei Shoigu said 300,000 people would be mobilized from a pool of 25 million. Contracts of professional troops would be extended indefinitely.
Putin also effectively announced plans to annex four Ukrainian provinces, saying Moscow would assist with referendums on joining Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to Russia, and implement the results. Putin accused officials in NATO states of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Russia. They should know that “the weathervane can turn towards them”, he said, adding that Russia “also has various means of destruction”.
“It’s clear Russia wants to destroy Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation Wednesday in Moscow.