What did Putin say?

- Until today the Kremlin has been claiming that its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine was going according to plan. Not any more.

- By announcing a “partial mobilisation” of military reservists, Vladimir Putin has conceded that Russia needs more soldiers on the battlefield.

- Mobilisation measures will begin today.

- Only citizens who are currently in the reserve and, above all, those who have served in the Armed Forces, have certain military professions and relevant experience will be called up for military service.

- Those called up for military service will have to undergo additional military training before being dispatched to their units, based on experience in a special military operation.

- Mobilised persons participating in a special military operation will be paid and have the status of a contracted soldier.

- The Government and the Ministry of Defence have been instructed to determine as soon as possible the legal status of volunteers and Donbas militias - it must be the same as that of regular Russian servicemen.

- From the Russian president, no hint of regret over his decision seven months ago to invade Ukraine.

- The tasks of the special operation remain unchanged.

- The Kremlin leader blamed all Russia’s difficulties on the West, which he accused of wishing the “disintegration of Russia.”

- Russia, he said, “would use all means at its disposal to defend Russia if its territorial integrity was threatened.”

- With Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine about to hold so-called referendums on joining Russia, that is a clear message to Ukraine and the West: Don’t try to take back land we have seized and will claim as our own.

- And just to make the point, he dropped in this threat: “Those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the prevailing winds can turn in their direction.”

What did Sergei Shoigu say?

- Ukraine has already lost half of its army: 61,207 dead, 49,368 wounded.

- 5,937 Russian military personnel have been killed. Almost 90% of those wounded in the special operation have returned to action.

- We are not fighting the Ukrainian army today, but the collective West.

- All branches and branches of the Russian armed forces, including the nuclear triad, are carrying out the task set by the President.

- Those with combat experience and with the military occupation the army needs will be drafted from the reserve.

- There is not and will not be any mobilization and drafting of students. And claims that all those who serve under the draft will not be sent to the reserve zone.

- 300,000 thousand reservists will be drafted.

- Partial mobilization is 1% of mobilization resources (from 25 million people)

Following the materials of BBC