Putin orders Russian mobilisation as he warns West he has 'lots of weapons and isn't bluffing' 🔴 In a rare television address, the Russian leader claimed that the West had engaged in “nuclear blackmail” against his country
Vladimir Putin has made a nuclear threat to the West, as he warned he had “lots of weapons to reply” to what he described as threats overclaimed that the West had engaged in “nuclear blackmail” against his country and “gone beyond all limits in its aggression”.
Putin ordered Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two, with a boost in military personnel serving in Ukraine and increase in funding to boost weapons production. Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that the partial mobilisation would see 300,000 reserves called up to serve in Ukraine, but that those who served as conscripts or students are not included. He said that this was just a fraction of the available manpower, with the vast majority of “25 million” reserves in Russia were not being called up.
Votes have been called by Russian-backed officials in four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – to ask whether they should become part of Russia.