Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Vladimir Putin could be on the verge of mobilising another 300,000 troops this year, but the Ukrainian President has vowed: "We'll wipe them all out."
Zelensky's warning on mobilisation
Mr Zelensky also claimed: "Russia has lost 267,000 personnel since the start of the year, including around 155,000 killed to date."
The Russian parliamentary elections take place in September but despite this, speculation has been rising over recent months that Putin is preparing a fresh mobilisation of troops. A draft close to the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 triggered fury and mass protests.
Elections and troop deployment
But Mr Zelensky said: "We are confident that following the elections, they will carry out a mobilisation. We believe this will not take place in the major cities."
The Ukrainian President believes Putin would "deploy the 300,000 newly mobilised troops depending on the situation in the east of our country."
Defiant vow and drone strikes
But Mr Zelensky, who has told Ukrainian generals to finalise the occupation of Donetsk by the end of 2026, defiantly vowed: "They’ll lose all 300,000 of these newly mobilised Russians there; we’ll wipe them out."
The comments come hours after a large Ozon logistics centre in Russia’s Samara region erupted into flames after a Ukrainian drone strike, marking the first confirmed attack on the country’s second-biggest online marketplace. Overnight into Saturday, drones hit the Ozon fulfilment hub in Chapayevsk.
The complex, covering around 135,000 square metres and ranked among the company’s largest in the Volga region, burst into flames. More than 500 employees were quickly evacuated. Ozon confirmed the strike and said operations at the site had been suspended indefinitely, while also reporting some injuries.
The Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery, a facility with a design capacity of just under 9 million tonnes of crude a year, was also struck and burst into flames.
