Russia is not going to formally declare war on Ukraine and mobilize all troops on May 9 says Russia, says this is lies and nonsense

Reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to formally declare war on Ukraine and launch a full mobilization of forces as early as Monday are not true, the speaker of Russia's parliament has insisted.

Earlier this week, unnamed US and Western officials told CNN that Putin was going to use “the symbolic significance and propaganda value” of Victory Day – when the defeat of Nazi Germany is celebrated annually, on May 9 – to make the announcement.

“No, no, no, I’ll tell you this on air and off air,” Vyacheslav Volodin, head of the State Duma, told Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station when asked about the prospects of mobilization, on Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier also slammed the reports as “lies and nonsense,” saying that such suggestions should just be ignored. The possibility of mobilization being announced in Russia was “non-existent,” he insisted.

Moscow has insisted that what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine is going to plan.

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