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According to the Interfax news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Monday that 50,000 Russian soldiers who had been mobilised as part of his mobilisation effort were currently engaged in combat in Ukraine.
Putin claimed that of the over 320,000 draftees, 80,000 were “in the zone of the special military operation”—the name Russia uses for its conflict in Ukraine—and the others were at training facilities in Russia.
“We now have 50,000 in their combat units. The rest are not taking part in the fighting yet,” Putin made the statement while touring the Tver area outside of Moscow, according to Interfax.
Following Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which saw it retake huge portions of lost territory, Putin declared in September that he would launch a “partial mobilisation” campaign to recruit hundreds of thousands of new soldiers for the conflict. Thousands of Russians fled as a result of the action, and anti-war demonstrations spread throughout the nation.
Putin stated last week that 318,000 people have been selected for the conscription in total.
The partial mobilisation effort by Russia came to a conclusion at the end of October, with Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, stating on October 28 that over 41,000 Russian fighters had already joined their combat units fighting in Ukraine.
