Vladimir Putin announces partial mobilization in support of invasion of Ukraine
The announcement is made in advance of the votes in the occupied regions on the union with Russia

In the run-up to the heavily staged referendums in four occupied regions of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin announced "partial mobilization".
In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, the Russian President said Russian forces would immediately call in their reserves to support the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin said Moscow will support the vote on annexing the currently Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to Russia.
The outcome of the "referendums" is a foregone conclusion, according to Western politicians and observers, as the Kremlin is responsible for voting and says more than 90 percent of the local population wants to join Russia.
Ukraine's western allies have said they will not recognize the result of the vote, which the US has described as a "fraud".
Putin described the decision as a step to protect the Russian-speaking population in south-eastern Ukraine from recent Kiev incursions.
"Russia cannot allow people close to it to be torn apart by executioners and denied their desire to determine their own fate," he said.
The Russian president accused the West of wanting to "weaken, divide and destroy Russia" and blatantly threatened to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine continued its offensive operations.
He accused the West of "nuclear blackmail" against Russia and vowed: "If its territorial integrity is threatened, Russia will use all means at its disposal. This is not a bluff."





