It is not “necessary” to only draft citizens with combat experience under “partial mobilisation”, the military commissar for the Perm region of Russia Alexander Kokovin said in an interview published in a group Perm Region on VK (Russia’s social media platform - translator’s note).
“The [presidential] decree states that it’s preferable to draft people with some combat experience, but it’s not necessary,” Kokovin noted.
“Of course, we are following [the decree], but not everyone here has combat experience. That’s why combat coordination is conducted for 10 days near the training ground. After people have arrived to the area of the special operation, there will be additional training carried out with instructors that do have combat experience,” the military commissar added.
Kokovin also assured the listeners that “no one is planning to go beyond the number of draftees announced by Putin” (Putin previously said that 300,000 people would be drafted under “partial mobilisation” - translator’s note).
On 29 September, the Perm region authorities declared that mobilisation activities had ended. “One hundred percent of citizens subject to mobilisation have been alerted about the draft. [We] plan to finish the transportation of the mobilised men for instruction and special training by 1 October,” Viktor Batmazov, the region’s Minister of Territorial Security, said back then.
On 4 October, however, the regional authorities announced the continuation of mobilisation. “We haven’t received any official information about the suspension of alerting [citizens] in regards to the partial mobilisation; the draft of people subject to partial mobilisation hasn’t officially been halted in the region,” the Ministry of Territorial Security of the region clarified.
Earlier today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that all mobilisation activities in Russia would come to an end in two weeks. According to Putin, 223,000 people have been drafted under “partial mobilisation” out of the planned 300,000.
He added that 33,000 drafted soldiers were already placed in military units, while 16,000 were completing military tasks. The line of contact is 1.1 kilometre long, it is impossible to defend it with only contract servicemen, Putin claimed.
