Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Vladimir Putin is preparing to draft another 300,000 Russian troops after next month’s parliamentary elections, with a goal of reaching 500,000 through further call-ups in 2027.

Getting into it: Zelensky laid this out in a session with reporters, the first time he has taken questions at length in months, describing it as a “peripheral mobilization” that would pull from Russia’s outer provinces rather than its cities. Russian parliamentary elections run Sept. 18 to 20, and the last mobilization in 2022 set off protests and pushed a wave of young men out of the country.

“We are confident that following the elections, they will carry out a mobilization. We believe this will not take place in the major cities,” Zelensky said, adding, “But I don’t think they will be able to hide it very well.”

He said Putin has ordered his generals to finish taking Donetsk by the end of the year and that he would deploy the new troops based on how the fighting goes in the east. Russia already holds at least 80% of the region, one of four regions Putin claimed to annex in 2022 while only partially occupying them. Ukrainian units are defending the rest, including the fortress belt built around industrial cities like Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. “They’ll lose all 300,000 of these newly mobilized Russians there; we’ll wipe them out,” Zelensky said.

He claimed Russia has lost 267,000 personnel since the start of the year, including roughly 155,000 killed, figures that cannot be independently confirmed but track with Western estimates. Zelensky also predicted Russia will end 2026 holding the same amount of Ukrainian territory it started the year with, and said the Russians may attempt incursions into Kharkiv and Sumy, noting that equipment is massing along the border, though no troops have appeared in Bryansk yet.

The bigger problem is air defense. Patriots are the only system that can stop Russian ballistic missiles. Ukraine expects 264 interceptors this year, down from 364 in 2025 and 675 in 2023. “As you can see, there is, unfortunately, a downward trend, and this depends primarily on the American side,” Zelensky said.

The Iran war is the reason. The Pentagon spent about half its Patriot inventory there, and the stockpile has fallen from 2,330 before it began to somewhere between 759 and 827 as of late July, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Zelensky is asking the US to carve out 5% of what is left and says Kyiv would pay for up to 10% of American stocks, calling it something that “could make a huge difference, both in terms of saving lives and diplomatically as well.” He told the coalition of the willing on Monday that Ukraine needs at least 300 Patriot missiles to get through the winter, and his air force has put in a request for 360 interceptors. He has secured at least one system from France and roughly 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors from Germany through 2028.

This all comes as Ukraine faces a $27 billion defense funding gap this year, with Zelensky saying he needs at least $8 billion for a normal start to 2027 and roughly $20 billion more for salaries and money owed to the families of soldiers killed in the war.