The American newspaper (Washington Post) said that many rumors circulate about Russian President Vladimir Putin's intention to announce a general mobilization on the anniversary of "Victory Day" tomorrow, Monday, to be able to achieve a victory in his war on Ukraine.
The newspaper pointed out that political analysts believe that the general mobilization of the war is the best way that may enable Russia to win the war in its favor in Ukraine, by strengthening the frustrated forces and pushing them back to the battlefields.
But this move carries major risks, including the possibility of stoking internal opposition to the war.
And the Washington Post said in the report prepared by the correspondents Robin Dixon and Liz Sly, that the Russian military campaign against Ukraine, which has been going on for 10 weeks, was not supposed to last so long.
Celebrate on the ruins of Mariupol?
On the day the invasion was launched, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-owned channel Russia Today, commented that the Russian military campaign was just a "normal rehearsal" for Victory Day.
She said in a tweet on Twitter that Russia "decided this year to organize the show in Kyiv."
The two correspondents say in their report that Moscow's efforts to combine the celebrations of Victory Day - in which Russia commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazis in World War II - with its victory in its war against what it calls "Nazis" in Ukraine have failed due to its failure to control Kyiv.
The report pointed out that Russia's ability to control the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol represents a rare success for it in this war, but the city, which was turned into ruins due to the bombing, is not considered a suitable background for the military parade, so Sergei Kirienko, head of the Russian presidential administration, ruled out Thursday the establishment of an official parade. On Victory Day in Mariupol.
Rehearsals in the Red Square in Moscow ahead of the military parade on Victory Day (Reuters)
General packing option
The report cited the views of some political analysts about Putin's intention to declare all-out war on Ukraine in the Victory Day celebrations on Monday, including Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R.Politik, a political consultancy, who said that Putin will seize the opportunity of Victory Day to justify His war against Ukraine and the affirmation of Russia's historical responsibility to fight fascism.
She highlighted that "the strategic problem that Russia is facing today is that the Russian society was not prepared for a long and costly war. It wanted a quick and decisive victory, which Putin could not give to the Russian people."
Stanovaya said that if Putin decides to declare total war and start mobilizing conscripts, the training of conscripts will take at least 6 months, and this step will be an admission of the failure of the invasion that Moscow calls a "special military operation", which Putin cannot admit, according to Stanovaya, She adds, "There are no indications that the Kremlin is ready to switch from a special military operation to a war."
The Washington Post report indicated that Russia has so far relied on its invasion of Ukraine on soldiers who voluntarily signed contracts for military service, and Russian officials have previously pledged not to send conscripts to war.
But the Russian military analyst Ruslan Leviev, who works in the independent open-source analytical group CIT, saw in an interview with Current Time TV, funded by the United States, that the partial mobilization Russia could help gain control of eastern Ukraine, where most of the fighting is now focused.
Igor Girkin, the former Russian intelligence officer who led a separatist militia in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in 2014, also warned that Russia will have to fight a protracted war and suffer heavy losses, which may reach the point of defeat unless it uses the option of general mobilization for the war, adding that Russia's future depends on on that packing.