Russia mobilizes 150,000 troops as Ukraine says it needs more

Russia has completed the enlistment of 150,000 conscripts into its military, its defense ministry said Monday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned he needed more fighter jets and missile defense systems to stop the Kremlin’s new advance on the battlefront.

Zelensky, whose forces have been scrambling to block the Russian offensive after a six-month delay in U.S. aid, has also said he wants to host another international peace summit.

Unlike the June summit in Geneva, Switzerland, Zelensky this time invited Russia to participate. “I set myself the goal of having a fully prepared plan by November,” he said at a news conference in Kiev. “I think Russian representatives should be present at the second summit.”

The two countries have presented different ceasefire plans, although Russia’s hardly amounts to a demand for Ukraine to surrender. Both countries have said the other’s vision is unacceptable.

The future of Ukraine’s military resistance was thrown into doubt after former President Donald Trump chose as his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican who has been fiercely opposed to Washington’s support for kyiv. Vance argued that the United States should encourage Ukraine to reach a peace deal with Russia and that kyiv should be prepared to cede territory to its invader.

This will only increase fears in Ukraine and Europe that a Trump victory in November’s presidential election would mean that the U.S. aid Ukraine relies on could be cut or reduced.

Russia has not faced such problems with its military supply lines, increasing production of key weapons such as cruise missiles despite Western sanctions.

Last week, NATO called on China to “cease all material and political support for the Russian war effort,” including any “transfer of dual-use equipment,” prompting a furious response from Beijing, which rejected the accusation. The United States and South Korea say North Korea has already supplied Russia with millions of munitions and dozens of ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in Moscow on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had completed its spring recruitment program of 150,000 recruits who were sent to the armed forces. Under Russian law, these conscripts cannot be sent to Ukraine, but should instead be assigned to missions in Russia. But that could free up other troops to serve on the front lines.

On March 31, Putin signed the decree. In Russia, all men over the age of 18 must complete one year of military service or equivalent training as part of their higher education. Since January, the maximum age at which men can be called up for military service has been raised from 27 to 30.

The spring conscription follows Putin’s September order calling for 130,000 people to take part in the fall campaign.

The Russian war machine is in full swing, and Zelensky has continued to seek support. Returning from the NATO summit in Washington, he told a news conference in kyiv that his country needed more F-16 fighter jets than it had already promised, as well as 25 additional Patriot missile defense systems.

Ukraine’s president said his forces had “lost the initiative” to Russia for six months, during which time Republicans in Congress blocked tens of billions of dollars in aid. That measure was finally passed in April, and Ukraine has been scrambling to stop Russia’s advance ever since.

The United States and other NATO allies pledged last week to supply Ukraine with dozens of air defense systems, including at least four sophisticated and expensive Patriot systems.

The F-16 fighter jets promised by Western countries are expected to arrive in Ukraine in two waves: the first batch this summer, and the second by the end of the year, Zelenskyy said.

Zelensky said he was “not afraid” of Trump’s election, despite his mixed messages about whether the former Republican president would continue U.S. military support for Kiev. Those questions will only intensify with Trump’s choice of Vance, who has repeatedly expressed opposition to sending money to the Eastern European nation.

“At this point, we are actively endangering our national security by focusing on Ukraine at the expense of other priorities,” Vance wrote on X last month. “At the very moment that world leaders are playing armchair generals with the Ukraine conflict, their own societies are degrading,” he wrote in another post in February.