Russian authorities are training some regional civil servants on how to act in possible mobilization scenarios.
This was revealed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Republic of Udmurtia will hold a two-day training program on the topic of "Organization of Mobilization Training in State and Local Government Bodies" for 20 state and municipal employees.
The program will run until December 5, and its modules will include lessons on the transition of the Russian economy to wartime conditions, the organization of mobilization planning, military registration of citizens in the reserve, the protection of classified information, and monitoring mobilization preparations.
According to reports, the Republic of Udmurtia has conducted similar training courses before, but the program comes amid growing signs that the Kremlin may conduct some form of mobilization in the near future, and shows that Russian authorities are preparing regional state and local government officials for the administrative and economic challenges associated with mobilization.
The growing number of Russian casualties and the decreasing number of volunteers are likely to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to order some form of mobilization in the near future in order to maintain the current pace of Russian offensive operations in Ukraine.
However, it is still unclear whether Putin is has made a final decision on whether to conduct a mobilization and, if so, what type of mobilization it will order.
In recent years, the Kremlin has focused heavily on Russian federal subjects with large ethnic minorities, such as the Republic of Udmurtia, to recruit contract soldiers and secretly form military forces.
The Kremlin may be trying to minimize public discontent over a possible future mobilization by focusing its recruitment efforts in these regions while excluding wealthier and politically significant areas, such as the Moscow and Leningrad regions, from forced mobilization.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) falsely claimed that Russian forces had surrounded Dobropilya.
This is an intensification of the Kremlin's psychological warfare campaign. It aims to convince Western society that Ukrainian troops are encircled, in order to convince the West that Ukrainian defenses are collapsing.
This campaign by Moscow comes against the backdrop of recent Ukrainian successes on the northern flank of the "Fortress Belt".
Neither Ukrainian nor Russian forces made any progress on September 22.