President Putin Says 50,000 Mobilization Troops Join Russia's Combat Units In Ukraine

Citizens following the partial mobilization of Russia. (Wikimedia Commons/Совет министров Республики Крым)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the 50,000 Russian troops who were called in as part of the partial mobilization are now at war with combat units in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported.

President Putin said 80,000 troops were "in special military operations zones", the term Russia uses for the war in Ukraine, the remainder of the nearly 320,000 conscripts remaining in training camps in Russia.

"We now have 50,000 troops mobilized in combat units. The rest have not yet taken part in the fighting," President Putin quoted Interfax as saying during a visit to the Tver region, outside Moscow, TASS reported November 7.

In September, President Putin announced a 'partial mobilization' effort to summon hundreds of thousands of new fighters to the battlefield, after Ukraine retook large swathes of territory in a retaliatory offensive.

The Kremlin's move sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of conscripted Russians, sparking anti-war protests across the country.

Last week President Putin said a total of 318,000 had been called up in the partial mobilization he announced.

Russia ended its partial mobilization efforts in late October, with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying as of October 28, about 41,000 Russian fighters had joined their combat units to fight in Ukraine.