Putin denies plan for new Russia military call-up

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 3 that Russia has no current need to mobilise more men for its offensive in Ukraine, rejecting speculation about another military call-up.

“There is no scenario today that would require mobilisation,” Putin told a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Putin described the speculation as a Ukrainian “disinformation campaign” ahead of Russian State Duma elections later this month. He said Russians were enlisting voluntarily and signing contracts.

Putin last ordered a “partial mobilisation” of reservists in 2022. The Kremlin said that order applied to 300,000 people in a country of about 140 million, but it was unpopular and prompted an exodus of draft-age men from Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in July that Moscow was preparing for a “new wave of mobilisation in the autumn” after heavy losses on the front. The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said in July that Moscow appeared to be setting the “conditions” for another round of mobilisation, citing legislation allowing the army to recruit more types of convicts in wartime.

There was no immediate response from Kyiv to Putin's latest comments.