Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine
While Russia touts the hundreds of thousands of reservists that have bolstered its forces in recent weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that the new troops are ill-prepared for battle.
“Today the enemy reports about the alleged completion of their mobilization, about the alleged unnecessity of new waves of deployment of Russian citizens to the front,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “We feel quite the opposite at the frontline. Russia is trying to increase pressure on our positions using the mobilized, but they are so poorly trained and equipped, so crudely used by the command, that it suggests that soon Russia may need a new wave of sending people to war.”
He added that Ukraine is preparing for Russian leadership to look for more opportunities to prolong the conflict.
For context: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday that the call for mobilization has been completed and the target goal of 300,000 mobilized citizens has been fulfilled.
The mobilization order got off to a rocky start and proved controversial in Russia, sparking protests and concerns from rights groups that ethnic minorities were disproportionately targeted for deployment.