Recruits attend military training at a firing range in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Russian Defense Minister Sergei said that the military has recruited over 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilization launched two weeks ago. (AP Photo)
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the recruits were undergoing training at 80 firing ranges before being deployed to the front lines in Ukraine, where Russian forces are on the retreat in some areas.
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking during a meeting with employees of the nuclear industry on their professional holiday, Nuclear Industry Worker’s Day, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 23, 2020. Putin’s threats to use “all the means at our disposal” to defend his country as it wages war in Ukraine have cranked up global fears that he might use his nuclear arsenal, with the world’s largest stockpile of warheads. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization on Sept. 21 to beef up his troops in Ukraine.
Recruits attend military training at a firing range in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Russian Defense Minister Sergei said that the military has recruited over 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilization launched two weeks ago. (AP Photo)
Shoigu previously said that up to 300,000 reservists were to be called up for service, but Putin’s order left open the possibility of an even larger recruitment effort. Some Russian media have speculated that the military plans to call up 1 million reservists or more.
A recruit attends a military training at a firing range in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Russian Defense Minister Sergei said that the military has recruited over 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilization launched two weeks ago. (AP Photo)
The mobilization sparked protests in many areas across Russia and drove tens of thousands of men to flee Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has formally ruled out talks with Russia following its illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a photo with soldiers after attending a national flag-raising ceremony in the freed Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Zelenskyy visited the recently liberated city on Wednesday, greeting soldiers and thanking them for their efforts in retaking the area, as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall building. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Zelenskyy’s decree released Tuesday declares that holding negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin has become impossible after his decision to annex four regions of Ukraine. The decree enacted a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council to bolster Ukrainian defenses and seek more weapons from the country’s Western allies in response to Moscow’s move.
In this photo provided by The Federation Council of The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, lawmakers of Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation listen to the national anthem attending a session in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. The upper house of the Russian parliament has ratified treaties to absorb four Ukrainian regions. (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation via AP)
Russia’s upper house of parliament on Tuesday ratified the treaties that make the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine part of Russia. Putin is expected to sign their official adhesion later in the day, completing the annexation.
Local resident Victoria, 57, reacts next to her residential building that was damaged after an overnight Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
The Kremlin responded to Zelenskyy by saying that it will wait for Ukraine to sit down for talks on ending the conflict, noting that it may not happen until a new Ukrainian president takes office.
A man walks next to a crater created by an explosion after an overnight Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
ANKARA, Turkey — Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis has called for the deployment of more weapons from Western allies to Ukraine following the partial mobilization of reserve troops announcement by Russia.
Ukrainian servicemen find a body of their comrade on the destroyed petrol station in the recently recaptured town of Lyman, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
In a video address to a conference in Turkey’s capital on Russia’s war against Ukraine on Tuesday, Perebyinis said the additional weapons would not lead to an escalation but help to end the war sooner.
Local resident Ekaterina, 22, stands next to her residential building that was damaged after an overnight Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
“We need additional long-range artillery and ammunition, combat aircrafts, and armed vehicles to continue the liberation of the occupied territories,” the deputy minister said. “We need anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to secure our civilians and critical infrastructure from the terrorist attacks on the Russian forces.”
Communal workers load remains of a missile into a truck after an overnight Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
Perebyinis said: “such assistance doesn’t lead to escalation; it will only bring the end of the war closer. The sooner Ukraine receives weapons, the sooner the war will be over and more lives of Ukrainians will be saved.”
Western weapons have helped Ukraine launch a counterattack that has forced a Russian retreat from some previously conquered terrain.
