Twenty Russian regions have launched massive and urgent recruitment of reservists to defend the country’s critical infrastructure, the newspaper reports today. .
According to the media, the units began to be formed even before the signing of the respective law by the Russian president.
The first region to announce the creation of a unit made up of reservists to protect itself from Ukrainian drone attacks was Leningrad. Later, the regions of Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk, Rostov and others joined it.
At the end of October, indicates Kommersantthe Russian republic of Tatarstan began recruiting reservists, where enemy drone attacks on oil infrastructure and drone factories have become frequent for months.
The newspaper points out that although the new law does not stipulate that reservists, this clause is included in the standard contract they sign when joining their respective units.
On November 4, Putin signed the law that allows the creation of contract reservist units to guarantee the defense of the country’s critical infrastructure.
Previously, the bill that allows reservists who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense to be sent to perform critical infrastructure defense tasks was approved by both chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly.
The deputy head of the Department of Organization and Mobilization of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, denied that the legislative innovation involves mobilization.
Since the start of the war in February 2022, the Russian authorities have only carried out a partial mobilization of 300,000 men of military age on one occasion, a decision that led to the exile of approximately one million people.
The new measure has been promoted to protect critical infrastructure in the face of the increase in Ukrainian drone attacks, particularly against Russian energy facilities, a fact recently admitted by the former Minister of Defense and Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu.
Asylum remains essential
In addition, this Monday it was learned that the countries of the European Union issued a total of 79,205 new decisions in September 2025 that granted, which represented the highest monthly figure recorded since August 2023.
According to a statement published this Monday by the community statistics office Eurostat, this increase occurs after the adoption by the Ukrainian government, at the end of August 2025, of the decree that grants men between 18 and 22 years of age the right to leave Ukraine without impediments.
Thus, the number of temporary protection concessions in September registered an increase of 49% compared to August, when 49,555 favorable decisions were issued.
After this update, the EU estimates that at the end of September 2025, a total of 4.3 million non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine had temporary protection in European territory, which gives a ratio of 9.6 beneficiaries per thousand people in the Union as a whole.
This emergency mechanism granted by the Twenty-Seven to displaced people from third countries provides immediate protection and coverage of residence rights, access to healthcare or education.
By country, temporary protection from Ukraine, with 242,140 citizens (5.7% of the EU total), behind Germany, with 1,218,100 people (28.3%); Poland, with 1,008,885 (23.5%); and Czechia, with 389,310 (9%).
In total, Ukrainian citizens represented more than 98.4% of beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU in September 2025.
The majority of decisions were granted to adult women, who made up 44% of the total beneficiaries, followed by minors, who accounted for almost a third (31.0%), while adult men comprised nearly a quarter (25.1%).
