No end to the war in Ukraine: Russia is planning new mobilization of 500,000 troops

Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, has predicted that “Russia will mobilise between 300 and 500 thousand additional troops to carry out offensive operations in southern and east Ukraine during the spring and summer of 2023<1>.

These 500,000 soldiers will be added to 300 thousand mobile troops in October of last year. This proves that Putin is not aimed at ending this war. Russian offensive is expected to take place in the Donnetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Zaporizhja. The bodies will go to the defanzave in Kherson and Crimea. This new wave of mobilization will last until two months”, Skibitsky said.

Russian officials have consistently denied that they are planning a new mobilization, but during a conference in December, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had proposed empowering the armed forces of up to 1.5 million soldiers, from the current 1.15 million over a period of 3 years.

This was required “to ensure the solution to problems related to the safety of the Russian Army”, Shoigu had declared, the Periscopi broadcast.

Skibytsky also said that early in 2022, the Defence Intelligence knew that “a full-scale invasion was expected to begin in early February”. /Periscopi/