NOS News•
Drone attacks on Russian soil, speculation about a possible new mobilization, Ukraine’s counterattack: Russian President Putin was very talkative today during an hours-long meeting with military journalists and bloggers. In his answers he mostly stayed the same, but he also made a number of striking statements.
Putin had invited “war correspondents” for an interview, during which they could ask him questions about the course of the war in Ukraine. For the first time, he commented on the latest developments in the struggle since the start of the counteroffensive in Ukraine.
This counteroffensive began on June 4, according to Putin, with Ukraine allegedly attacking Russian forces from several directions. According to him, the Ukrainian losses are ten times more than the losses on the Russian side and Ukraine has not succeeded anywhere. This claim cannot be independently verified.
Military bloggers support the war, but they are not afraid to criticize the Russian authorities. For example, messages regularly appear on Telegram condemning “those who say that everything is going according to plan.”
Recruitment and mobilization
Putin also remained vague in his comments today. For example, to a question about possible mobilization, he replied that there are no plans for it now, but he does not rule it out in the future. He said it depends on the goals we set for ourselves. “Do we still want to go back to Kiev?” Then the question hung in the air. Russia withdrew several weeks later last year after suffering heavy losses in an attempt to advance on the capital.
Russia quickly tightened its conscription law this spring. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape conscription, and since this week conscripts are forced to surrender their international passports during their term of service. Last year, hundreds of thousands of Russians fled their country to avoid mobilization.
Putin said that recruits do not have to go to the area where the “special military operation” is taking place. They were deployed to other regions of Russia.
Attacks on Russian territory
He also said of recent attacks on Russian territory, such as the Belgorod border region, that Russia could have been better prepared for such attacks. “In principle, one could assume that this is how the enemy will behave,” he said. He announced that Russia would increase the effectiveness of its anti-aircraft defenses.
At the same time, he said that now the production of weapons has increased, but there are very few precision weapons and it is difficult to detect drones. Russia has ways of dealing with attacks, Putin said, “but this does not mean that there will not be so-called internal attacks on our territory.” He stressed that all of this is because Ukraine receives a lot of weapons from the West, “something they can’t always keep up with”.
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