Nationalist Russian groups call  on Putin to declare war on Ukraine,  mobilize

Russian nationalist figures are increasingly criticising the failures of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and calling for further mobilisation, the Institute for the Study of War has said.

The ISW said that the All-Russian Officers’ Assembly, an independent pro-Russian veterans’ association that seeks to reform Russian military strategy, called for Putin to declare war on Ukraine and introduce partial mobilisation in Russia on May 19.

The assembly said that Russia’s operation had failed to achieve its goals in three months. It also appealed to Putin “to recognise that Russian forces are no longer only ‘denazifying’ Ukraine but are fighting a war for Russia’s historic territories and existence in the world order,” the ISW said.

The institute added that while these calls could help set conditions for partial mobilisation, the Kremlin had so far declined to take this step “likely due to concerns over domestic backlash and flaws in Russia’s mobilisation systems”.