Russia Not Mobilizing More Forces, Despite Ukraine Counteroffensive

The Kremlin will not initiate a nationwide mobilization effort to bolster its military, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, even as Ukraine is engaged in its most successful counterattack since Russia’s invasion of the country began.

“At the moment no, there is no discussion of this,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the possibility that Russia could mobilize its reserve forces. His comments contradicted Mikhail Sheremet, a State Duma deputy from the ruling party, who said a day earlier that “full mobilization” was necessary for Russia to succeed in Ukraine, according to Reuters.

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Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said on Tuesday that “most of all, we need maximum mobilization of our strength and resources” in order to win what he described as a “war” against the United States, Europe, and NATO. Zyuganov’s reference to the “war” is notable because Kremlin leaders, since the invasion began, have described it as a “special military operation.”

Should Russia call up its reserve forces, it would likely be forced to acknowledge to its people that the “special military operation” is both not going well and a full military operation.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured almost all of Kharkiv Oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s Sunday update, after they recaptured the town of Kupiansk, which is located roughly 30 miles north of Izyum, in recent days. In some places, Ukrainian forces have penetrated Russia’s military to a depth of roughly 40 miles.

“From the beginning of September until today, our warriors have already liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine in the east and south,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday. “The movement of our troops continues.”

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Monday that Russia believed it had an “advantage” and was mistaken.

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“It was just a matter of time before these fundamental resources began to have their impact on the Russian operations in the east, where they thought they had an advantage, but a lot of the key elements of a strong defense are the capabilities of your soldiers, the capabilities of logistics and demand, and we’ve seen fractures in all of those elements, and they played out in many places in overtime in the east.”

A senior military official also noted “anecdotal reports of abandoned … Russian equipment, which could be indicative of Russia’s disorganized command and control.”