The Russian Defense Minister said that 82,000 recruits have already been sent Ukrainereflecting what the West described as a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counterattack with poorly trained forces.
Sergei Shoigu told the president, Russian President Vladimir Putinthat another 218,000 were training in the barracks, and that the controversial “partial mobilization” had ended, although it was not possible to verify the cited figures.
The meeting between the two was broadcast on Russian state television, with Shoigu telling Putin: “The task you set (mobilization) 300,000 people has been completed. No further measures are planned.”
The emergency draft began in September, after Ukraine won a string of victories in the northwest near Kharkiv, prompting some Russians to protest and others to flee Country. Dozens of recruits were killed after being thrown into the front lines to protect the more experienced troops in the rear.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Friday that Russia was seeking to consolidate its current gains after eight months of hard fighting by relying on a “severely incomplete and poorly trained force” that was “only capable of carrying out defensive operations”.
But, despite critical analysis, there are indications that the increased use of conscripts by Russia has slowed Ukraine’s progress in both the east and south of the country, with autumn approaching winter.
“The progress of the Ukrainian forces forward is not going as quickly as we would like,” said Serhiy Hayday, the Ukrainian governor of the East Luhansk region, in a television interview, because Russia managed to restore its reserves and pits.
Thousands of conscripts were scattered in places like Bakhmut, where Hayday said they were quickly killed or wounded after being thrown into battle against the pitted Ukrainians. “The average ‘life span’ of the mobilized individuals is about two weeks,” the governor added.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Friday that up to 1,000 Russian recruits were sent across the Dnipro River to fortify Kherson, showing that the Kremlin is not ready to abandon the city without any kind of fight. Troops will be deployed in homes belonging to residents who have fled the war.
A week ago, Russia seemed to fear losing the city and had moved commanding officers across the east bank of the river – and began evacuating civiliansa practice Ukraine said amounted to forced deportation.
Ukraine retook a string of villages near Kherson in early October, but Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov warned earlier this week that the autumn rains had “slowed us down a bit” and that progress was becoming gradual.
Locals say that the terrain between the Ukrainian-controlled cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson is especially difficult because the flat land is cut off by large irrigation canals, some of which have dried up, but in both cases it is easily fortified.
Western military experts have long predicted that the pace of fighting will slow in November as torrential rains scattered the ground and made it increasingly difficult for armored vehicles to operate off-road. You may not relive the battle again until in the depths of winter when the ground freezes.
Russia’s appointed Kherson governor said earlier this week that the tomb and remains of Prince Grigory Potemkin, once the prime minister and mistress of 18th century ruler Catherine the Great, had been moved from a cathedral in Kherson and moved deeper into the occupied territories.
“We have moved the quiet remains of His Majesty Prince Potemkin from St. Catherine’s Church and the memorial itself to the left bank” east of the Dnipro River, the official Russian news agency quoted Volodymyr Saldo as saying.
Another Russian official said the evacuation of civilians from Kherson had ended. “Work has been completed to organize the population leaving for the left bank of the Dnipro River to safe areas in Russia,” Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said late Thursday, after a visit to the region.
Ukraine’s air force said it has shot down more than 300 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones so far, although that number is only a fraction of the 2,400 aircraft the country believes Russia has acquired from Tehran.
Russia used the difficulty of detecting drones to help target Ukraine’s power plants and power grid during October. Power outages, intended to destabilize the power supply, have become routine in many of the country’s major cities.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said the city’s electricity grid was operating in an “emergency mode”, with electricity supply halved compared to pre-war levels. Four hours of power outage Advertised in and around the capital.
Oleg Sinihopov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, announced on Telegram that a one-hour blackout will begin on Monday, including in the regional capital, which is the second largest city in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential office said at least four civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the latest Russian attacks, and heavy shelling damaged dozens of apartment buildings and power lines near the southern city of Nikopol.
“Infuriatingly humble alcohol fanatic. Unapologetic beer practitioner. Analyst.”
