Ukraine invasion Day 282: Is the Russian partial mobilization still going?

The Russian partial mobilization – actually declared to be over long ago – is always a topic of conversation. The “Institute for the study of war” (ISW) now has more in its report Evidence collected that partial mobilization is still ongoing.

Accordingly, a Russian military blogger reported that in the Orenburg region – on the border with Kazakhstan – one million rubles had been made available for a mobilization hotline from mid-December to the end of January.

One soldier, who is said to have had a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry until October, is said to have been told that she would have to work “until the end of mobilization”. In addition, workers at a sugar factory in Chelyabinsk are said to have received mobilization summonses on November 28.

Meanwhile, there is news from Zaporizhia. Troop movements indicated a Russian withdrawal from the region, writes the ISW. These are personnel from the cities of Polohy, Myhailivka and Inzhenerne.

“Retreating from a critical position may indicate that the Russian armed forces cannot defend the entire front line in Zaporizhia Oblast‘ write the experts. However, it is just as likely that the Russian armed forces will regroup.

The Ukrainian General Staff also reports that Russian occupation officials in Burchak were conducting a census in preparation for future evacuation efforts.

The most important news of the day

• Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for the first time since mid-September. The Kremlin said Putin drew attention to “the destructive line of Western states, including Germany, pumping weapons into the Kiev regime and training the Ukrainian military.” That, along with financial aid, led Ukraine to refuse negotiations with Russia, Moscow claimed. According to a government spokesman, Scholz condemned the Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. Scholz underscored Germany’s determination to support Ukraine in ensuring its defense capability against Russian aggression. In addition, Scholz insisted that it to a diplomatic solution as soon as possible had to come, which included a withdrawal of Russian troops. Read more about this here.
• The Ukrainian secret service SBU has again searched more than half a dozen monasteries and churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The house searches are part of countermeasures against sabotage activities by Russian secret services, the authority said on the Telegram news channel.
• After a letter bomb in Spain, other Ukrainian diplomatic missions received packages with blood in them. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that packages containing animal eyes had been received at the embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy and three consulates in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. There are also said to have been incidents in front of the seat of the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and the embassies in Kazakhstan and the USA. Parcels and letters were received synchronously from “a European country”.
• Germany wants to deliver seven more Cheetah anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine. The seven tanks, which were actually intended for scrapping, are currently being repaired by the Munich armaments group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and they should be delivered to Ukraine in the spring, reports the “Spiegel”.
• The Russian military has faced logistical challenges after withdrawing from the west bank of the Dnipro River. The Ukrainians have recently been able to attack Russian logistics hubs and communication channels more easily, which is why Moscow is presumably moving the hubs further south and east, according to the daily summary report from the British Ministry of Defence. A lot of equipment has to be shifted from rail to road – on the road, the transports are easily attacked.
• According to a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already been killed in the fight against Russia. There are official estimates by the general staff – “and they assume 10,000 to 13,000 dead,” said Mykhailo Podoliak. Selenskyj will give the exact numbers “when the right moment has come”. Read more about this here.
• The investigative commission of the UN Human Rights Council has complained about the lack of access to the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. “We have contacted the authorities of these territories,” said commission chairman Erik Møse at a press conference in Kyiv. Efforts have so far been unsuccessful, but will continue. Until then, the United Nations Commission will collect evidence of human rights violations in other ways, it said.

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