Vladimir Putin could be preparing to mobilise as many as 500,000 additional fighters in the coming weeks, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, raising the prospect of a fresh escalation in Russia’s war against Ukraine and a deliberate attempt to intimidate Europe.
Zelensky said Moscow could announce a mass mobilisation after Russia’s parliamentary elections on September 18-20, while avoiding a formal declaration that would expose the political cost of another large-scale call-up.
He alleged that Russian authorities could lure men into signing contracts for supposedly safe employment before transferring them to the front, while tightening restrictions on military-age men seeking to leave the country.
The significance, Zelensky argued, extends beyond the battlefield. A vastly expanded Russian force could be used to reinforce pressure on Ukraine while signalling to NATO governments that continued military support carries the risk of a wider confrontation.
“He needs to sell a victory,” Zelensky said, arguing that Putin remains determined to seize the Donbas despite failing to achieve a decisive breakthrough.
Ukraine also claims Russia is seeking up to 50,000 North Korean fighters, potentially adding another source of manpower to Moscow’s war machine.
The warning comes as Russia continues to pound Ukrainian cities. Overnight strikes hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, killing at least two people and injuring 13, according to local authorities.
For Europe, the danger is not simply the size of any future Russian mobilisation. It is the possibility that Moscow is increasingly treating manpower, escalation and the threat of a wider war as instruments of strategic coercion.
If Zelensky’s intelligence is accurate, the next phase of the war may be designed as much to frighten Europe as to defeat Ukraine.
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