Ukraine on Dec. 3 called-up the first of “several hundred” army reservists for training and to ramp up Ukraine’s defenses, according to the country’s Armed Forces.
The reserve soldiers have been summoned for 20-day military drills at firing ranges in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.
The training is designed to bring reserve soldiers into readiness “in case Russia starts open aggression” as well as to “refine the format of how to use mobilized reservists” when emergencies occur, according a posting by the army press service on Facebook on Dec. 3.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian armed forces currently have approximately 255,000 active duty troops, and more than 158,000 reserve personnel, nearly 122,000 of whom are in the first wave operational reserve.
“The first wave operational reserve personnel are those aged up to 40 years old,” Deputy Chief of General Staff Major General Rodion Tymoshenko told the Kyiv Post.
“They have received appropriate training and they are attached to specific military units. They know their commanders and are ready to take command of their forces at first call.”
At the same time, the Defense Ministry reported, the measures taken in compliance with martial law regime do not envisage a full-fledged mobilization, which, nonetheless, still could be declared in the case of an open, all-out Russian attack.
Also, along with the army reserve call-up, a 10-day drill will be held among territorial defense formations in all 10 oblasts affected by the martial law.
The General Staff, however, said that all personnel engaged in the drills would be home by the beginning of Christmas and New Year festive season. The period of martial law is scheduled to end on Dec. 26.
Tensions between Ukraine and Russia rocketed on Nov. 25, when Russian coast guards fired at and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and captured 24 crew members not far from the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation since 2014. The attack prompted the Ukrainian government to impose a 30-day period of martial law in the 10 Ukrainian oblasts that border Russia, Russian-occupied areas, or the Black or Azov seas.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on Dec. 3 that Ukraine would send more soldiers to the borders of the 10 oblasts.
“We have full information about an abrupt increase of the Russian troops along our border and in occupied Crimea,” Poroshenko said, speaking at a conference dedicated to defending human rights in Kyiv.
“Ukraine is taking its own steps in response to the threat of a large-scale Russian invasion.”
