FOG BLOG WORLD NEWS LOG: PUTIN MOBILIZES MORE TROOPS, WARNS WEST AMID U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY!

Putin's call to mobilize more troops to fight in Ukraine heightens tensions at home Russian president also warned West not to intervene President Vladimir Putin's call Wednesday to mobilize Russian troops to fight in the battlefields of Ukraine is raising the stakes at home, where the government message has been that life continues as normal despite the "special military operation" next door.

The partial mobilization shatters that narrative, as 300,000 young men are being called up to serve in Ukraine.

It's the first such mobilization in Russia since the Second World War.

"I was shocked by this," said Georgiy, a Moscow-based student who received a draft notice on Sept 19.

CBC spoke with him Wednesday morning and has agreed to disclose only his first name because he could face punishment for speaking out.

The 23-year-old served in the military four years ago when he was conscripted, but recently received a draft notice asking him to report to his local military office because he was being called up to perform a technical role. He said when he reported to the office, his documents were changed to show that he should serve as a front-line soldier.

When he and his family watched Putin's speech on Wednesday morning, his mother was crying.

"I want us and other countries to live in peace," he said.

"We don't need a war." Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taken centre stage at the United Nations General Assembly, with Germany and France condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “imperialism”, Qatar, Senegal and Turkey calling for immediate peace talks, and Lithuania urging the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to punish Moscow’s atrocities.

Standing at the UN rostrum in New York late on Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there was “no justification whatsoever” for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February. “This is imperialism, plain and simple,” he said, adding that it spelled disaster not just for Europe, but also for the global, rules-based order. “If we want this war to end, then we cannot be indifferent to how it ends,” Scholz said. “Putin will only give up his war and his imperialist ambitions if he realises that he cannot win.” Germany, therefore, he pledged, will not accept a peace dictated by Russia and will continue supporting “Ukraine with all our might financially, economically, with humanitarian assistance and also with weapons”.

The ongoing General Assembly is the UN’s first full, in-person leader’s summit since the COVID-19 pandemic and comes as the war in Ukraine approaches its seventh month. That conflict has become the largest war in Europe since World War II, with thousands killed and millions forced to flee their homes.

The loss of important grain and fertiliser exports from Ukraine and Russia has meanwhile triggered a global food crisis, especially in developing countries.

In two General Assembly votes soon after the Russian invasion, about 140 of the UN’s member nations overwhelmingly deplored Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and called for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. But more than 30 countries abstained, including China, India and South Africa.