Putin wants to draft 300,000 new troops, Zelenskyy says

Kyiv – Ukraine thinks Russia is planning to draft an additional 300,000 troops for its war effort after Russian parliamentary elections in mid-September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Moscow’s forces are pressing ahead with an effort to capture the rest of eastern Ukraine’s industrialized Donbas region, where troops have ground forward at what Kyiv says is a great cost. In comments to reporters released on Sunday, Zelenskyy said Russia could draft more troops in 2027 to reach an overall goal of 500,000, part of what he described as a “peripheral mobilization” targeting Russia’s far-flung regions.