Russian forces are intensifying efforts to replenish their military losses using the male population in the occupied territories of Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense (GUR) reported on 9 January. Moscow has particularly activated forced mobilization in the occupied communities of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, GUR stated.
According to GUR, Ukrainian farmers are currently the focus of these efforts. In several villages, Russian forces have distributed written demands requiring all men of conscription age to register for military service. Non-compliance with these directives could lead to fines of approximately 400,000 rubles (around $4500) for agricultural enterprises or individual farmers. However, paying this fine does not guarantee exemption from participation in the war against Ukraine in the ranks of the Russian army, GUR noted.
As per Ukraine’s intel, these ultimatums, threats, and repressions against the population remaining on the occupied Ukrainian lands represent a systematic criminal policy by Moscow. The activation of forced mobilization by the Russian military in the occupied territories of Ukraine is driven by the need to cover personnel losses and the diminishing support for the war among the Russian populace.
Kremlin currently considers it impossible to announce a large-scale mobilization in Russia to avoid worsening the social mood “ahead of the so-called ‘Putin elections’,” GUR said.
Virtually all men aged 18 to 65, and often even 16 and 17-year-old teenagers, are under threat of forced mobilization, with Moscow compelling them to join the occupying army, GUR concluded.
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