Ukraine Says Russia Is Planning New Mobilization to “Turn Tide of War”

(Adds Ukraine declares it repels Russian invasion near Bakhmut. Deputy defence minister remarks paragraphs 24-26. U.S. official observes Bakhmut fighting still in paragraph 27.

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Russia will give up ‘everything’ to war – Kyiv

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New Year’s strike: 89 Russian troops killed

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Bakhmut, eastern front still scene intense fighting

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Russia deploys hypersonic cruise missiles-equipped frigate

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This story also includes Russian content, which is prohibited by law from covering Russian military operations against Ukraine

Pavel Polityuk

KYIV, 4 January (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zilenskiy claimed that Russia would call up additional troops for a major offensive. However, Moscow was facing internal criticism over a strike that resulted in the deaths of scores of new conscripts.

Kyiv has claimed for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to order another massive conscription drive and close his borders to stop men from fleeing the draft.

“We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” Zelenskiy stated this in his Tuesday nightly video address.

“We have to disrupt this Russian scenario … Any attempt at their new offensive must fail.”

Russia’s defense ministry blamed soldiers’ mobile phone use for the New Year’s Eve strike in Ukraine. This was the most serious incident Moscow has ever acknowledged for its troops.

Russia could be planning a new mobilization and the deaths of hundreds of conscripts on New Years Eve could hurt morale. After suffering military setbacks, hundreds of thousands fled Russia after Putin ordered the first mobilization of reservists since World War Two in September.

Putin stated last month that there was no need to mobilize more men. In a sign that the Kremlin might now be thinking about one, a small group representing widows of Russian soldiers called Tuesday on Putin to mobilize millions of men. The Kremlin has yet to comment on the appeal.

RUSSIAN ANGER

Russia has effectively shut down direct opposition to war and banned open criticism from the media. However, it has allowed pro-war bloggers to have relatively free reign with thousands of followers on social networks.

Many people are becoming more vocal about what they see as a weak and incompetently-led campaign. They expressed anger this week at the strike that killed Russian soldiers who were being held in Donetsk’s vocational school on New Year’s Eve.

Putin has not spoken publicly about the attack, but military commanders have been criticised.

Russia’s Defence Ministry raised the death toll to 89, from 63. It blamed soldiers who illegally used mobile phones. This led to the location of the base in Makiivka by Ukraine, the twin city of Donetsk.

Semyon Pgov, a war correspondent, was decorated by Putin and stated on Telegram that the mobile phone explanation “looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame”There were many other ways Ukraine could have seen the base. Others pro-Russian bloggers claim that the strike was made worse by ammunition stored at the location. Moscow has not confirmed.

Rob Lee, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute think tank, stated that Moscow has a problem with keeping newly mobilised troops close to the front in winter.

“It is more difficult to disperse them because of a lack of small unit leadership, and they will do worse in the cold than trained soldiers,” He tweeted. However, he tweeted. “is simply a leadership failure”He said so.

ARMOURED VEHICLES

After a telephone conversation between the two men, Emmanuel Macron, French President, said that France would send light AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to aid in the war. A French official added that this was the first time Western-made armoured vehicles have been delivered in support for the Ukrainian army.

Andriy Cherryak, a Ukrainian official in the intelligence section of the defense ministry, stated that Kyiv was expecting no slowdown in Russia’s offensive this year, despite the death toll.

“According to Ukrainian military intelligence estimates, in the next four-five months the Russian army may lose up to 70,000 people. And the occupying country’s (Russia’s) leadership is ready for such losses,” Cherniak.

Russian leaders “understand they will lose but they do not plan to end the war”He said,

Putin sent a frigate to the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday, armed with new generation hypersonic cruise rockets. It was a signal that Russia won’t back down in its fight against Ukraine.

Ukraine claimed that Russia launched seven missile strikes, eight air strikes, and more than 85 rocket-launched attacks on civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, Kramatorsk and Kherson in the last 24 hours.

Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

According to the General Staff of Ukraine, Russian forces were advancing towards Bakhmut in Donetsk Province. Both sides are thought to have lost thousands of soldiers during weeks of trench warfare.

The interior ministry of Ukraine said Wednesday that the border guards had repelled a Russian attack near Bakhmut, and then captured the enemy’s positions following a counterattack. It didn’t give any specific details as to where the clash occurred.

Hanna Malyar, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister, stated that Russia would continue to create additional assault units and concentrate on the capture Bakhmut and the other cities to its north.

Malyar, citing Malyar’s main Intelligence Directorate in the Ministry, wrote on Telegram, that Russian losses were significant enough to make it most likely that Moscow would have to announce a second partial mobilization during the first quarter.

A senior U.S. official stated that heavy fighting around Bakhmut will continue for the foreseeable future. However, the outcome is uncertain since the Russians have made incremental gains.

Russia has launched what it calls “a” “special military operation” On February 24, Ukraine was threatened by Russia’s security and felt the need to protect Russian speakers. Russia is accused by Ukraine and its allies of an unprovoked war against seizing territory.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux. Writing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones. William Maclean. Editing by Philippa Fletcher.

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