Why Putin is relying on 300,000 reservists

Berlin, Riga Annexations, partial mobilization and a threat of nuclear weapons: The three building blocks are probably the most important components in Vladimir Putin’s strategy to turn the tide in Ukraine. According to experts, the Russian President wants to put pressure on the West, above all with the danger of a possible nuclear escalation. “According to his logic, by annexing the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Cherson and Zaporizhia, he would basically create the conditions for being able to use weapons of mass destruction,” said former German ambassador in Moscow, Rüdiger von Fritsch, to the Handelsblatt.

Putin’s fifteen-minute speech on Wednesday morning could thus mark the beginning of a new phase of the war. The head of the Kremlin had announced on Russian television that one was exposed to “threats” because of which partial mobilization was “completely appropriate”. It is about protecting the “fatherland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The safety of the people in the “liberated” areas of Ukraine must be guaranteed.