Russia Admits it Wasn’t Ready For Putin’s Mobilization Order

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that his country wasn’t ready for the partial mobilization order that was announced by President Vladimir Putin in September.

Shoigu, during a discussion between Putin and Russia’s top military officials, acknowledged that his ministry faced difficulties after the Russian president ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.

“With the beginning of partial mobilization, the Russian Defense Ministry encountered certain difficulties,” the minister said in Moscow.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, on December 21, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the conflict in Ukraine as a “shared tragedy” but placed blame for the outbreak of hostilities on Ukraine and its allies, not Moscow. SERGEY FADEICHEV/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

According to Shoigu, sudden changes had to be made to the organizational and staffing structures of military command and control bodies, formations and units.

“The mobilization training system itself was not fully adapted to the new economic relations. Therefore, with the beginning of partial mobilization, we encountered difficulties in alerting and calling up citizens who were in reserve. All the shortcomings had to be corrected on the go,” Shoigu explained.

After Putin announced a “partial” military mobilization on September 21, Shoigu said Russia would be targeting 300,000 reservists and ex-military personnel with “certain military specialties and relevant experience.”

However, the figure in Putin’s decree has not been disclosed to the public.

The Kremlin said on October 31 that the partial mobilization had ended. A U.S. think tank, the the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), has assessed, however, that Russia is “covertly” mobilizing troops.

Putin himself has acknowledged that “mistakes” have been made in his partial mobilization.

Reports have emerged of ineligible men being called up for military service. In October, a Moscow government official who was conscripted as part of Putin’s mobilization decree, despite having no combat experience, was killed in Ukraine.

Some conscripted Russians have died before reaching the battlefield, while others have died shortly after being deployed in Ukraine.

Thousands of Russians have also been mistakenly mobilized and later returned home, while officials have been dismissed for mistakes made during mobilization.

Fueling rumors over a possible second wave of mobilization, Putin on Tuesday established a task force to coordinate work between the Kremlin and pro-war military bloggers on his mobilization campaign.

The Special Operations Forces of Ukraine—one of the five branches of Ukraine’s armed forces—has said a new wave of mobilization in Russia is expected in February 2023. The Kremlin has so far denied plans for another phase of mobilization.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.

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