site.btaFormer Defence Minister Shalamanov: Russia Mobilization Means Escalation to Full-scale War

The partial mobilization in Russia means escalation to full-scale war, according to former caretaker defence minister Velizar Shalamanov. "The partial mobilization in Russia largely means a failure for the special-military-operation fallacy and a practical escalation of this aggression to a full-scale war, especially in the context of support for the announced referendums in the self-proclaimed and unrecognized by anyone Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics, as well as the military-civil administration in Zaporizhzhya and Kherson," he told BTA.

"A full-scale war means that Russia is ready to throw a lot more manpower and equipment to stop Ukraine's counter-offensive and present this aggression to Russian citizens as a defence of fictional, non-existent borders of the Russian Federation drawn on the territory of Ukraine," Shalamanov argued.

In his opinion, by announcing mobilization, Russia is not just admitting that it is suffering losses: it is admitting that the "special military operation" is failing and cannot achieve the objectives with the allocated forces, and increases the risk in the further course of hostilities. "And now the Russian forces have volunteers from the private Wagner group of mercenaries, from Chechnya, there was even talk of volunteers from Syria and elsewhere in the world. Adding inadequately prepared and unmotivated people to a poorly managed and poorly fighting army that resorts to war crimes and to systematic attacks on civilian objects, will lead to even more problems with warfare, to more casualties, to much more destruction on both sides," said Shalamanov.

He believes that the duration of the war depends on the ability of the Ukrainian forces to push the Russian troops out of Ukrainian territory, and this depends on the supply of weapons and the training of the Ukrainians.

The only way to mobilize the public in Russia is to present it as a war in which Russia is a victim, a war in which it is threatened by the West, Shalamanov said, referring to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's statement that Russia at the moment "is conducting combat operations not only with Ukraine's armed forces but with the collective West". "This is part of the disinformation, part of the propaganda, because Russia started this aggression without any reason," Shalamanov pointed out.

He hopes that nobody in Bulgaria would buy into this "disinformation, propaganda and outright lies".

Asked whether the threat of using nuclear weapons in the conflict is real, Shalamanov said that it could not be ruled out, but a provocation with accidents in nuclear facilities on the territory of Ukraine was much more real. "President Putin's remark about a nuclear threat from the West against Russia and possible retaliatory measures, shows that disinformation will be used to create grounds for use of nuclear weapons if, even after the partial mobilization, the offensive of Ukrainian forces continues towards the Russian border, and especially after the planned referendums [in Luhansk and Donetsk] aimed at declaring Russian territory what is now over 20% of the sovereign territory of Ukraine," Velizar Shalamanov pointed out.