Russia does not plan to declare war on Ukraine to announce full troop mobilisation

Reports in a number of Western media about the alleged intention of the Russian authorities to announce general mobilization in Russia are not true to fact, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 9.

"That's not true, that's nonsense," the spokesman for the Russian president told reporters. According to him, it is not worth listening to such information.

Peskov also denied rumours about Russia's intention to officially declare war on Ukraine on May 9.

Earlier, CNN and some other publication reported that the Russian authorities were preparing to officially declare war on Ukraine in the near future in order to kick off a full troop mobilization in Russia and speed up the pace of the special operation on the territory of Ukraine. The publications, while citing a few experts that they interviewed, said that this could happen as early as May 9, when Russia celebrates Victory Day.

The TV channel, among other things, quoted British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who said in an interview with LBC Radio that Putin would try to stop calling what is happening in Ukraine a 'special operation'.

According to CNN, on May 9, Moscow could also announce the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics to Russia (Russia recognized their independence on February 21). In the above-mentioned reports, CNN referred to US State Department spokesman Ned Price and US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Michael Carpenter who admitted such a possibility (the latter said that he could not talk about Moscow's intentions).