Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov: ‘The special military operation in Ukraine has escalated into a full-scale war’
At the first plenary meeting of the Russian State Duma’s fall session on Tuesday, Russian Communist Party (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov said that the “special [military] operation” in Ukraine has grown into a full-fledged war. During the two months that he and his fellow deputies were on vacation, Zyuganova said, the situation on the front has “changed drastically.”
The military-political operation against the Nazis, Banderites, and fascists in Ukraine has escalated into a full-fledged war, which has been declared against us by the Americans, NATO members, and a unified Europe.
A war is fundamentally different from a special operation. A special operation is something you announce — and something you can choose to put an end to. A war is something you can’t stop even if you want to. You have to fight to the end. War has two possible outcomes: victory or defeat.
Zyuganov made similar remarks in front of journalists before Tuesday's meeting. The KPRF website posted a fragment of the speech, in which the party leader said that “in the last two months, the special operation in Ukraine and in the Donbas has escalated into a war.”
Later in the excerpt, Zyuganov says that “every war requires a response. First and foremost, it requires maximum mobilization of forces and resources. It demands social cohesion and clear prioritization.”
In addition, various media outlets and Telegram channels reported that Zyuganov called for a “general mobilization” at the Duma session. Unlike the statements above, however, this quote has not been repeated by any official government or KPRF sources.
Among other outlets, the independent news portal Sota Vision, citing a Telegram post from KPRF State Duma Deputy, quoted Zyuganov as saying the following:
“How does a special military operation differ from a war? You can end a military operation at any moment. A war isn’t something you can just stop; it ends in either victory or defeat. I invite you to consider the thought that there’s a war going on — one that we don’t have the right to lose. Now’s not the time to panic. It’s time for a total mobilization of the country. We need a completely different set of laws.”
Meduza was unable to immediately verify this quote.
Update: KPRF spokesperson Alexander Yushchenko said in an interview on Tuesday that Zyuganov was referring to a mobilization of the economy and resources, not of troops. Yushchenko called media reports suggesting that Zyuganov called for a general mobilization “provocations.”
The Kremlin maintains that a complete or partial mobilization is not being discussed. “At the moment, no. There’s no talk about that,” Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.
In late August, the Ukrainian military launched a counteroffensive in the country’s Kherson region, and in September, they launched another one in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine has made significant gains in the latter area, handing Russia its largest defeat since the start of the war.