Russia: 200,000 reservists recruited for Ukraine war

Russia's defence chief says the military has recruited over 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilisation launched two weeks ago. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the recruits were undergoing training at 80 firing ranges before being deployed to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization on September 21 in a bid to beef up the forces fighting in Ukraine.

Shoigu has previously said that up to 300,000 reservists were to be called up for service, but Putin's order held the door open for a bigger recruitment effort and some Russian media speculated that the military was actually aiming to call up one million reservists or more.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered a partial mobilization of reservists to bolster his forces in Ukraine, a deeply unpopular move that sparked rare protests across the country and led to almost 1,200 arrests. The risky order follows humiliating setbacks for Putin’s troops nearly seven months after they invaded Ukraine. The first such call-up in Russia since World War II heightened tensions with Ukraine’s Western backers, who derided it as an act of weakness and desperation.

The move also sent some Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets to flee the country. In his 14-minute nationally televised address, Putin also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing about using everything at his disposal to protect Russia — an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal. He has previously rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to Ukraine.