Ukraine's top general, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, struck an upbeat tone after his country's rapid advances in the northeast and south in recent weeks. The official also suggested Russia did not have enough missiles to sustain attacks like those this week: "Russia is rapidly exhausting its supply of long-range precision munitions, in particular its air-launched cruise missiles, so this is not a campaign that it will be able to sustain indefinitely." 'Initiative is in our hands' "It is clear that they have been fielded with very, very limited training and very, very poor equipment, and that is the reason why we say that it is really unlikely that they have any sort of positive impact in the near term," the official said. Most Russians see war in Ukraine as a war with the West, says pollster.Members of ethnic minorities and residents of rural areas have complained of being drafted at higher rates than ethnic Russians and city dwellers.ĭefending the mobilization order, Putin told a news conference at the end of a summit in Kazakhstan that the front line was too long to defend solely with contract soldiers. Officials have acknowledged some mistakes were made in determining who would be called up. In parts of Russia, the mobilization has led to the first signs of public criticism of the authorities since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. He has also proclaimed the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces and threatened to use nuclear weapons. Putin ordered the mobilization three weeks ago, responding to Russian defeats on the battlefield with escalation. Putin also said Russia had no plans "for now" for more massive airstrikes like those it carried out this week, in which it fired more than 100 long-range missiles at targets across Ukraine. Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.
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