As fierce fighting continues, especially in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to be softening its hardline against Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government. Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that overthrowing the government in Kiev was no longer the goal of the “special operation”.
“We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to free themselves from the regime that is absolutely hostile to the people and history,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed in Sommer. But after heavy territorial losses in the annexed territories of Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk, Moscow showed an increasing willingness to negotiate. “Kiev doesn’t want talks, so the special military operation continues,” Peskov said ten days ago after Russian troops withdrew from Kherson. But now it seems that at least one goal of the “special operation,” as the Russian government calls the war, is unattainable: a change of government in Kiev.
Peskow: No second wave of mobilization planned
Peskow admitted this on Monday. “It is necessary that negotiations be conducted now,” the spokesperson emphasizes. He also refuted fears among the Russian public that a second wave of reservists could be mobilized for the war. In the Kremlin there is “no discussion” about it.
By the end of October, Russia had completed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists for the war in Ukraine, according to its own statements. Some 82,000 troops had already been deployed to the front at the beginning of November, the rest had to be prepared for the battle in Russia. The mobilization caused a real mass panic in Russia, hundreds of thousands of people fled – at least temporarily – abroad. Many of them traveled to the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan and Georgia. Others went into hiding in their own country to avoid being drafted into the army.
Despite official denials by the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry, fears of a new wave of mobilization in Russia are high. The fact that many people do not trust the Kremlin’s information is probably also due to the fact that until now there has always been chaos during the mobilization. Several cases have been documented where men were called up despite health problems. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin had to admit that there were mistakes that “had to be corrected”.
Source: Krone
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