The Kremlin says there are no plans to announce a full or partial mobilization for Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as Russian troops suffer losses and lose territory in the Kharkiv region to a counteroffensive.
"At this point, no, there is no talk about it," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 13, answering a journalist’s question about the possibility of a mobilization.
Peskov also said that any criticism of Russian military officials over Ukraine's recent successes on the battlefield in Ukraine's Kharkiv region could be made only "in accordance with the current legislation."
"But the dividing line here is very thin. One should be very careful here [when criticizing Russian military leadership]," Peskov warned, in a thinly veiled reference to a law adopted in March, days after Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, that criminalized any criticism of the invasion.
One day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian armed forces had recaptured 6,000 square kilometers from Russia in a counteroffensive launched at the start of the month.
One Moscow-imposed official admitted that Russian forces have been vastly outnumbered as the Ukrainian military pushes to the border with Russia.
