Partial mobilisation completed as quota limit reached: Moscow mayor
Oct 17, 2022
Moscow [Russia], October 17 : The partial mobilization ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to recruit reservists for its war in Ukraine is now completed as the quota limit has been reached, media reports said quoting Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin as saying.
On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered partial military mobilization in Moscow as it had planned to conscript around 300,000 troops in an apparent escalation of its Ukraine invasion that began in February this year.
In the latest statement on his website, Moscow mayor Sobyanin said that the draft offices will now be closed after the mobilisation quota is reached. He said that Kremlin's mobilisation quotas to recruit reservists had been completed, reported Al Jazeera.
"Gathering points for mobilised people will close on October 17 2022, at 2:00 pm, 1100GMT," Sobyanin said on his website where he added that "the tasks of the partial mobilisation", announced last month, had been "completed in full."
The Russia-Ukraine war is now in its eighth month as the missile strikes continue to hit major Ukrainian cities. In a recent escalation, Ukraine's capital city Kyiv was rocked by multiple explosions early on Monday in an attack by "Kamikaze" drones, a Ukrainian official said.
Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office of Ukraine, said kamikaze drones were attacking the city. "The Russians think it will help them, but these actions look like desperation," Yermak said in a statement, blaming Russia for the attack, CNN reported.
Several residential buildings were damaged in the attack. In a Telegram message, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the "drone attack" caused a "fire in a non-residential building."
Kyiv says Moscow has used Iranian-supplied drones in the strikes against Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other cities across Ukraine in recent weeks, and pleaded with Western countries to step up their assistance in the face of the new challenge, CNN reported.
At least three explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital at around 6:45 a.m. local time on Monday as a result of apparent Russian strikes, according to CNN.
One of the blasts was in the Shevchenkivskyi district in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. In order to tackle the situation, emergency services have been sent on-site.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has only escalated after a truck recently exploded on the Crimea road bridge, causing seven fuel tanks of a train heading to the Crimean Peninsula to catch fire. Three people were killed in the blast, which also led to the partial collapse of two spans of the road bridge.
The Crimean Bridge was opened in 2018 by President Vladimir Putin, four years after Moscow annexed Crimea and was designed to link the peninsula to Russia's transport network.
The 19-kilometre bridge, which runs across the Kerch Strait and connects Crimea with mainland Russia, consists of a railway and vehicle sections. It became fully operational in 2020.
Earlier, the transport ministry had said the bridge, which consists of two parallel routes for automobiles and trains, will possibly open to trains by 8 pm Moscow time (1700 GMT) on Saturday.