President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday celebrated the voluntary deployment of 270,000 Russians “in the past six or seven months” to the army’s fight in Ukraine, a number that adds to the 300,000 soldiers mobilized last year.
“We have carried out a partial mobilization and 300,000 people have registered. And in the last six or seven months, 270,000 people voluntarily signed contracts with the armed forces and in volunteer units,” Putin said, estimating that between 1,000 and 1,500 people were involved in the armed forces. register daily.
Since September 2022 and the mobilization ordered by the Russian president, more than half a million Russians have joined the armed forces in Ukraine, something Putin welcomed and praised the patriotism of the citizens. He did not say whether a new mobilization of reservists is planned.
Russia has never revealed how many men took part in the first operation of the offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, but Western sources estimate it was between 150,000 and 190,000.
Faced with Ukrainian resistance, the Russian army first had to retreat north, abandoning its goal of taking Kiev in spring 2022. Then it had to withdraw from the northeast in September due to the Ukrainian counter-offensive, and finally it had to withdraw from the northeast in September. In November it left the city of Kherson in the south.
Russia, like Ukraine, does not release estimates of its losses, but Western sources say they are significant.
Source: DN
