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<\/p>\nZelenskyy warns Russia may mobilize 300,000 more troops for Ukraine war after elections<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Russia is likely to mobilize another 300,000 troops later this year, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as it tries to complete the capture of a long-coveted region of eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n
In wide-ranging remarks released Sunday, Zelenskyy said he expected that the Russians would end the year occupying the same amount of Ukrainian territory as at the beginning of the year, despite enormous losses of manpower.<\/p>\n
Related video above: Russian drones strike a shopping center in central Ukraine<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has lost 267,000 personnel since the start of the year, including around 155,000 killed to date,\u201d Zelenskyy claimed.<\/p>\n
The figure is impossible to confirm but is in line with estimates by Western officials.<\/p>\n
Russian parliamentary elections take place next month, and there has been speculation about a fresh mobilization despite a 2022 draft triggering protests and an exodus of young men.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that following the elections, they will carry out a mobilization. We believe this will not take place in the major cities,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said he believed Putin would \u201cdeploy the 300,000 newly mobilized troops depending on the situation in the east of our country,\u201d and had told his generals to complete the occupation of Donetsk by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll lose all 300,000 of these newly mobilized Russians there; we\u2019ll wipe them out,\u201d Zelenskyy asserted.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian units are defending some 20% of Donetsk, including a belt of strategic industrial towns such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said it was impossible for the Russians to complete the capture of the Donetsk region. He suggested the Russians might also attempt an incursion into the northern Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv and Sumy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do not yet have troops in the Bryansk region (which borders northern Ukraine), but we can see military equipment along the borders with the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk, Kushner, and air defenses<\/p>\n
On air defenses, Zelenskyy contrasted the number of Patriot missiles supplied in 2023 \u2013 which was 675 \u2013 with the forecast number of 264 this year. Ballistic missile attacks have increased civilian casualties and infrastructure damage across Ukraine – and Patriots are the only means of shooting them down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you can see, there is, unfortunately, a downward trend, and this depends primarily on the American side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Last month, President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine would be permitted to build Patriot missiles on license, but later backed away from the idea.<\/p>\n
If the U.S. would supply up to 10% of its Patriot missile stocks to Ukraine, Kyiv would pay for them, Zelenskyy said. Such a commitment \u201ccould make a huge difference, both in terms of saving lives and diplomatically as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine faces the same problem in acquiring Aster air defense missiles from Europe, according to Zelenskyy, despite a recent pledge by French president Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t enough \u2018Aster\u2019 missiles, even though they are being produced,\u201d he said \u2013 though added a licensing agreement would accelerate supplies.<\/p>\n
Kyiv\u2019s long-range missile program will get a boost Monday when new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham makes his first official visit to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
London has agreed to allow defense firm MBDA to release classified information on UK components to help Ukraine build its own long-range SCALP missiles, the French-produced version of the UK\u2019s Storm Shadow.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Ukraine is hunting the sites in Russia from where ballistic missiles are launched, according to Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s military industries may be capable of building about 1,300 ballistic missiles a year, Zelenskyy said. \u201cThere are specific objectives regarding strikes on military targets and other anti-ballistic sanctions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has developed an arsenal of long-range drones and its own cruise missiles, which are being used against a widening array of targets inside Russia.<\/p>\n
He also spoke about Kyiv\u2019s efforts to get permission to use Starlink satellite imagery of Russian territory.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk, who owns Starlink, said he \u201cbelieved that this could lead to a major escalation against the Russian Federation on Ukraine\u2019s part,\u201d according to Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he was in favor of ending the war, not prolonging it\u201d \u2013 and discussions with Washington were continuing.<\/p>\n
As for negotiations, Zelenskyy suggested that the window of opportunity for ending the war stretched through the end of next summer, when the U.S. presidential election campaign would begin.<\/p>\n
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were \u201cfinding it very difficult to find a format whereby the Russians would agree to end this war without Ukraine having to withdraw from Donbas or accept other unacceptable solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJared, Steve and I agreed to summarize all these discussions on a single page \u2013 setting out the realistic options for ending the war. This is what the Americans want to discuss with us and with the Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy warns Russia may mobilize 300,000 more troops for Ukraine war after elections Russia is likely to mobilize…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11408,11407,774,1231,4472,10311,220,5160,43,999,758,2439,207,30,2981,1383,430,1664,428,158,6153,213,5821,2952,598,79,25,10393,11409,510,2438,1665,3541,2408,11415,26,319,152,314,112,108],"class_list":["post-32277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-000-troops","tag-11407","tag-air-defense","tag-air-defenses","tag-andy-burnham","tag-ballistic-missile-attack","tag-ballistic-missiles","tag-central-ukraine","tag-donald-trump","tag-donbas","tag-donetsk","tag-elon-musk","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international","tag-jared-kushner","tag-kharkiv","tag-kyiv","tag-law","tag-military","tag-military-target","tag-patriot-missile","tag-patriot-missiles","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-russian-federation","tag-russian-mobilization","tag-russians","tag-starlink","tag-steve-witkoff","tag-sumy","tag-troop","tag-uk-component","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war","tag-year","tag-zelenskyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}