UK Defense Ministry: Russia doesn't rule out another wave of mobilization

Russian authorities don't exclude the possibility of conducting another wave of call-ups under the so-called partial mobilization campaign, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Jan. 30.

"The Russian leadership highly likely continues to search for ways to meet the high number of personnel required to resource any future major offensive in Ukraine while minimizing domestic dissent," reads the report. 

According to late January media reports, cited by the U.K. Defense Ministry, Russian border guards prevented Kyrgyz labor migrants with dual citizenship from leaving Russia, telling them their names were on mobilization lists.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Jan. 23 that the decree on "partial mobilization" was still in force, claiming it remains necessary for "other military tasks."

Ukraine's military intelligence reported on Jan. 7 that Russia plans to launch a new wave of mobilization of 500,000 conscripts for the war against Ukraine.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier claimed that the mobilization for the war against Ukraine had finished. Putin announced a "partial mobilization" of 300,000 men on Sept. 21.

But according to reports by Ukraine's General Staff and the Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin had continued mobilization covertly. Estonia's intelligence chief Margo Grosberg said on Jan. 6 that mobilization in Russia had never actually stopped.