Afraid of providing weapons: Russia's mobilisation failure in occupied territories

Yuriy Sobolevskyi, First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, shared the information in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Legally, Russian occupiers cannot carry out mobilisation unless a person has received a Russian passport, which is why we have said from the beginning that this passport poses a significant threat, especially to men of military age. Why, in my opinion, is there no mass mobilisation so far? Firstly, they are attuned to the genuine sentiment of the population and are afraid to give weapons to the people of the Kherson region. And secondly, the level of passport issuance was very low because of the quiet resistance of the population, people were forced to take passports. But it's only a matter of time before they carry out such a forced mobilisation," Sobolevsky said.

The representative of the regional council spoke about cases when residents of the Kherson region who received Russian passports were captured in Russia and could not return home. They risk becoming soldiers of the enemy army.

Sobolevskyi also mentioned the "Margelov Volunteer Battalion", which was created by Russian occupiers a year earlier, "It is now used exclusively for propaganda purposes. According to my information, it does not take part in hostilities because it lacks staff. It is a fake, it exists on paper. A certain number of collaborators were recruited and they were able to create a facade, but there are very few of them and the combat capability of these people and the whole 'unit' is highly questionable.”

• Earlier this month, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Andriy Yusov, said that Russia recruits about 20,000 people a month to fight in Ukraine.
• In August, the National Resistance Center reported that about 20,000 mobilised residents of occupied Horlivka were killed in the war in Ukraine.
• The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that the Russian military command is still deploying elite units, including airborne troops, to safeguard vulnerable positions amidst the Ukrainian counteroffensive.