US and Western officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, to pave way for the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as they attempt to conquer eastern and southern Ukraine.
In Russia, May 9, is known as “Victory Day,” and is used to commemorate the Russians’ defeat of the Nazis in 1945.
US officials say they believe that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities — or both, according to a report by Reuters.
The report says western officials believe Putin will use the day to deviate from a “special military operation” with the central goal of “denazification.” which the Russian government has used to term it’s war in Ukraine to formally declare war on Ukraine
A formal declaration of war on May 9 could surge popular opinion amongst
Russian citizens tiwards the invasion and would also, under Russian law, allow Putin to mobilize reserve forces and draft conscripts, which officials say Russia desperately needs as its manpower reduces due to the war.
Western and Ukrainian officials have estimated that at least 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war since Russia invaded just over two months ago.
“I think he will try to move from his ‘special operation,’” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio last week. “He’s been rolling the pitch, laying the ground for being able to say ‘look, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people. I need more Russian cannon fodder.’”
Wallace added that he “would not be surprised, and I don’t have any information about this, that he is probably going to declare on this May Day that ‘we are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilize the Russian people.’”
Western officials also believe other options for Putin on May 9 include annexing the breakaway territories of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, making a major push for Odesa in the south, or declaring full control over the southern port city of Mariupol.
