Ukraine War05 September, 20263 min read
Vladimir Putin Intensifies Bombing Campaign To Exploit Ukraine’s Weakened Air Defenses
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Putin says no mobilization planned for Ukraine offensive; rumors are disinformation. Intensifying bombing to exploit weakened air defences, pressuring Kyiv toward surrender by winter.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Bombing and air defenses
Vladimir Putin is intensifying a bombing campaign aimed at exploiting Ukraine’s badly weakened air defenses, with analysts cited by The Washington Post saying he believes it could force Kyiv to capitulate on some of his key territorial demands, perhaps by this winter. The Russian president’s push comes as Ukrainian officials and others continue to frame the war in terms of mobilization and timing, with Zelensky in July saying he had “clear information” that Russia would be preparing “for the autumn [northern hemisphere] a new wave of mobilization.” Putin rejected that framing during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, saying “As of today, there is no scenario that requires mobilization,” while referring to the parliamentary elections scheduled from September 18 to 20.
In the same context, The Washington Post describes Putin as seeking a military win after a CIA director visit to Moscow, and it links the renewed pressure to the belief that Ukraine’s air defenses are “badly weakened.” The reporting also places the discussion inside a broader political calendar, with Putin’s statements tied to the Duma elections window from September 18 to 20 and the war’s continuing escalation in parallel with that campaign.
Putin denies mobilization
Putin told audiences at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that rumors about a new mobilization plan were “nothing more than disinformation spread before the parliamentary elections,” and he anchored that denial to the phrase “It is an informational attack by the enemy.” In July, Zelensky had said he had “clear information” from his intelligence services that Russia would be preparing “for the autumn [boreal] a new wave of mobilization,” setting up a direct clash between Kyiv’s warning and Moscow’s rebuttal. The Russian president also pointed to the earlier “partial mobilization” of about 300,000 reservists in September 2022 after launching its offensive in Ukraine in February of that year, and the reporting says the measure prompted many Russians to flee abroad.
Putin argued that the Russian army offers “attractive salaries and tax benefits” and that, according to him, it has “no trouble recruiting people,” while the same reporting says the armed forces signed 422,000 contracts for “military service” in 2025. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is quoted in the same package as considering in July that Russia seemed to be “laying the groundwork for a possible mobilization,” even as Putin denied any current plan.
Diplomacy, repression, and stakes
While Putin denied mobilization and discussed the possibility of peace, Elena Zhemkova of Memorial warned that Russia could face a new wave of repression after the September parliamentary elections, saying “after the elections we will witness a clear worsening.” Zhemkova linked the political climate to the war, saying “For them, prison is a path to the front line of the war against Ukraine,” and her warning was made in a context that included the exclusion of the only party openly opposed to the war in Ukraine and new detentions of opposition candidates. Putin, by contrast, said “In my opinion, yes, there is” a possibility of reaching a peace agreement, and he added that several countries, including the United States and China, were willing to back a settlement to the conflict.
The same reporting says Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told journalists in Kiev that he has high hopes that a “new dynamic” would emerge to bring the war to an end, with peace efforts moving into “numerous capital cities around the world.” The stakes described in the reporting also include the political machinery around the elections scheduled from September 18 to 20, with Memorial’s director warning of arrests and prison as the conflict’s front line, while Putin framed the election-period mobilization talk as disinformation.