Russia’s partial mobilization has been completed, with 300,000 reservists drafted as planned, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The draft was announced in September amid Moscow’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine.
“The dispatch of citizens conscripted for mobilization was completed today,” Shoigu told Putin. “Citizen notification has been discontinued. The task set by you – 300,000 people – has been fulfilled.
“No additional tasks are planned. Military commissariats within the framework of the special military operation will continue to replenish the troops only by accepting volunteers and candidates for military service under the contract,” he said.
“13,000 citizens, without waiting for summonses, expressed a desire to fulfill their duty and were sent to join the troops as volunteers,” the minister added.
Shoigu noted that more than 1,300 representatives of executive authorities at various levels, as well as more than 27,000 entrepreneurs, were drafted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
According to the defense minister, 82,000 mobilized troops were sent to the conflict zone. Another 218,000 draftees are getting ready for combat duty at training centers and at training grounds.
The average age of the reservists called up as part of the mobilization was 35, he revealed.
Shoigu also acknowledged problems with the equipment for conscripts, however, explaining that these were experienced only at the initial stage and have already been resolved. Putin, in turn, noted that difficulties were inevitable, since mobilization had not occurred for a long time.
Partial mobilization in Russia was announced on September 21. In the disclosed part of the presidential decree, no data was provided on how many people were planned to be drafted. Shoigu said that 300,000 would be conscripted. The partial mobilization will officially end only when Putin signs the relevant decree.