Putin speaks about special operation, mobilisation and threat of nuclear war

There will be no second wave of mobilization in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said when speaking at the meeting of the Human Rights Council.

"Out of 300,000 mobilized defenders of the Fatherland, we have 150,000 in the zone of the operation. Another 150,000, that is, half of all the mobilised, are not in the grouping zone at all — they are still staying at training grounds of the Ministry of Defence. This is a combat reserve. Under these conditions, talking about additional mobilization measures does not make sense," Putin said.

"Today there is no need in this both for the state and for the Ministry of Defence,” he added.

Putin held a meeting with human rights activists via video link on December 7. The members of the Human Rights Council spoke about their work in 2022, in particular, about various aspects of human rights assistance in terms of the special operation and integrating new regions.

Special operation is a long process - Putin

The special military operation in Ukraine could perhaps be a lengthy process, but the emergence of new territories within Russia and the transformation of the Sea of Azov into an inland water body has already become a significant achievement of it, President Vladimir Putin said during the meeting, RIA Novosti reports.

Putin also spoke about those who left Russia after the start of the special military operation. The president did not judge them. He only said that probably some of those people believed that Russia was not their country.

"One can talk a lot on this topic; you said it's not their life. Well, I don't know… maybe some of them thinks that this is not even their country,” he said.

He also spoke about incidents of desertion.

"As for incidents of desertion, <…> not only have nothing of the kind, we don't even have [for deserters] any camps, zones or anything like that. It's all nonsense, it's fake news," Putin said.

About threat of nuclear war

"The threat of a nuclear war is growing, why deny it. Russia will not be the first to use it (nuclear weapon) first," Vladimir Putin said.

"We have not gone crazy, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are. We have these tools and they are in a more advanced and modern form than in any other nuclear country. This is obvious. But we are not going to brandish these weapons like a razor as we run around the world. Of course, we proceed from the fact that we have them. It's a deterrent," he added.

The President also noted that the Russian Federation does not keep its nuclear weapons in other countries, like the United States does. Russia views nuclear weapons as a means of defense, as an opportunity for a retaliatory strike, he said.

Russia will continue the consistent struggle to protect its national interests - by peaceful means at first, but if this does not help - by all available means, Putin concluded.