Some 315,000 people already called for military service in latest wave - intelligence

That’s according to Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.

 “In Muscovy today, according to our estimates, not 300,000 but 315,000 have been drafted. They are now running another wave mobilization in the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. At such pace of war, there simply will not be any male able-bodied population left there,” the senior intelligence official said.

At the same time, Skibitskyi said that Russia lacks weapons to properly equip the newly formed units as its defense industry is incapable of replenishing on time all battlefield losses.

“There are not enough weapons to equip the units that are being formed now. Russians do not produce as many units of equipment as they lose. Moscow began to remove equipment and weapons from storage, from their arsenals, but they have been stored there for 30 years or more, needing repair and maintenance, and we know this by the example of 1st Tank Army’s 2nd division. They were supposed to finish combat coordination on December1 but they did so only on January 1. That is, they waited a whole month for the division to be equipped with weapons that are not currently in production. In case of additional mobilization of 500,000 people, there will be even bigger problems with provision. In addition, you understand what a colossal resource this is, even for Russia, and how much it affects their economy because it is mainly the able-bodied population,” Skibitskyi said.

As reported, partial mobilization was announced in Russia on September 21 in accordance with President Vladimir Putin’s decree. At that time, it was announced that the effort covered reservists exclusively, and that 300,000 people would be called up.