The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, surprised this Friday by announcing an upcoming end to the partial mobilization that he himself called on September 21 to reinforce his military campaign in Ukraine. The head of the Kremlin believes that the recruitment will be completed in two weeks.
"A total of 222,000 people out of 300,000 have already been mobilized. All mobilization activities will be concluded in about two weeks," Putin told a press conference in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, held after the Interaction Conference Summit. and Confidence measures in Asia.
The Defense Ministry said the number of reservists it was going to call up was 300,000. Putin, however, assured that "the Ministry of Defense initially proposed a lower number."
The Russian president also assured that after this "an additional mobilization is not planned". "I don't see any need," he assured.
Putin specified that of the 222,000 mobilized so far, 33,000 are in training military units and 16,000 are already serving combat missions in Ukraine.
The mobilization has turned out to be hugely unpopular in Russia. Following the announcement, tens of thousands of Russians of fighting age fled the country. Some took the plane to go away, but others preferred to flee by road, causing long queues at the border crossings of the neighboring countries Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
