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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that after the State Duma elections, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin wants to carry out mobilization and is counting on conscripting between 300,000 and 500,000 people.
The head of state said this in an interview with Sky News, UATV English reports, citing his Telegram.
“Putin isn’t ready to stop this war. We have intelligence data that he’s preparing for mobilization. He wants to do this after the Duma elections on September 21. He wants to ramp up mobilization. Not openly, because he’s afraid of his own society, but he’ll do it in early October if we don’t create problems for him with logistics, weapons, gasoline, diesel, and if our partners don’t impose total sanctions for his aggression,” Zelenskyy said.
The president noted that the Kremlin leader aims to mobilize between 300,000 and 500,000 Russians.
“This will become a major problem, because he’ll be counting on mobilizing between 300,000 and 500,000 people. Mobilizing that many people isn’t all that difficult for him. He’ll have domestic issues over this, since his society — and I’ve seen the polling — opposes mobilization,” the president noted.
The head of state stressed that a significant percentage of the Russian population also opposes the war, but they still support Putin regardless.
“He won’t be able to train these people quickly. This, again, means he’ll send poorly trained people into the field. And that, in turn, means heavy losses,” he added.
The president stated that Ukraine is ready to build a drone production plant in the UK based on Ukrainian technology and to share its combat experience.
According to Zelenskyy, Kyiv is also proposing joint production of missiles similar to Storm Shadow, and the creation of a European missile defense system. Cooperation, he said, should include financing, technology exchange, and specialist training.
As previously reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin plans to expand the war against Ukraine and increase attacks on it, that he needs more Russians to take part in assaults, and that the Ukrainian state needs to defend itself preemptively against this.
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