Russian forces have depleted a significant proportion of their precision-guided ammunition and the Kremlin cannot produce all kinds of ammunition and weapon systems due to Western sanctions, a NATO official has said.
The official also suggested it could take months for Russia to mobilise the number of fighters it was aiming for.
Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu has previously suggested 300,000 men with military experience would be called up to bolster Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, although Mr Putin’s decree did not disclose a number.
Officials from two separate regions also said this week they had received new orders to mobilise troops, raising fears a second wave of men could be called up to serve in the army.
The governor of Russia’s Rostov region said he had received a “new mobilisation assignment”, while the deputy head of the Kursk region was quoted as saying they had been given a “second” mobilization target.