President Vladimir Putin called up Russian military reservists on Wednesday, saying his promise to use all military means in Ukraine was "no bluff," and hinting that Moscow was prepared to use nuclear weapons.

His mobilisation call comes as Moscow-held regions of Ukraine prepare to hold annexation referendums this week, dramatically upping the stakes in the seven-month conflict by allowing Moscow to accuse Ukraine of attacking Russian territory.

A senior US official said Washington was taking Putin's "irresponsible" veiled threat to use nuclear weapons "seriously" and warned it could alter its "strategic posture" if need be.

Four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine -- Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south -- said on Tuesday that they would hold the votes over five days beginning Friday.

In a pre-recorded address to the nation early on Wednesday, Putin accused the West of trying to "destroy" his country through its backing of Kyiv. Russia needed to support those in Ukraine who wanted to "determine their own future", he said.

The Russian leader announced a partial military mobilisation, with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu telling state television that some 300,000 reservists would be called up.

- 'Act of desperation' -

"When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff," Putin said.

"Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind can also turn in their direction," Putin added.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a interview with Germany's Bild media group released Wednesday, he did not think Putin would resort to nuclear weapons.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced the call-up as "an act of desperation" in a "criminal war" he said Russia could not win.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said it would result in a "massive tragedy, in a massive amount of deaths".

Putin said that through its support for Ukraine, the West was trying to "weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country". Shoigu said Moscow was "fighting not so much Ukraine as the collective West" in Ukraine.

In the wake of their announcements flights to neighbouring ex-Soviet countries were booked up for days to come, airline data showed, in what appeared to be a rush to quit the country. Prices for remaining seats skyrocketed.

The sudden flurry of moves by Moscow this week came with Russian forces in Ukraine facing their biggest challenge since the start of the conflict.

In a sweeping Ukrainian counter-offensive in recent weeks, Kyiv's forces have retaken hundreds of towns and villages that had been controlled by Russia for months.

In a rare admission of military losses from Moscow, Shoigu said on Wednesday 5,937 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine since the launch of the military intervention in February.

- 'Wake-up, finally' -

As Putin made his announcement, residents were clearing rubble and broken glass from a nine-storey apartment block hit by an overnight missile strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Svetlana, 63, gathered with friends to look on as neighbours and municipal workers moved debris, urged the region's Russian neighbours to ignore the mobilisation and "to wake up, finally".

Her neighbour, 50-year-old Galina, expressed bewilderment.

"They want to liberate us from what? From our homes? From our relatives? From friends? What else?" she told AFP. "They want to free us from being alive?"

The referendums follow a pattern established in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine after a similar vote.

Like in 2014, Washington, Berlin and Paris denounced the latest ballots, saying the international community would never recognise the results.

Beijing, which so far has tacitly backed Moscow's intervention called on Wednesday for a "ceasefire through dialogue" after Putin's address and in likely reference to the referenda said the "territorial integrity of all countries should be respected".

"It's irresponsible rhetoric for a nuclear power to talk that way. But it's not atypical for how he's been talking the last seven months and we take it very seriously," John Kirby, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, told ABC's "Good Morning America".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told German media he does not believe Russia will use nuclear weapons warned against giving in to Putin.

"Tomorrow, Putin can say -- as well as Ukraine, we want part of Poland, otherwise we will use atomic weapons. We cannot make these compromises," he said.

- Strike at nuclear plant -

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meanwhile denounced Putin's "dangerous and reckless nuclear rhetoric."

And EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday accused Putin of putting world peace "in jeopardy".

"Putin's announcement of sham referenda, partial military mobilisation and nuclear blackmail are a grave escalation," Borrell wrote on Twitter.

"Threatening with nuclear weapons is unacceptable and a real danger to all," he said.

Kyiv said the referendums were meaningless and vowed to "eliminate" threats posed by Russia, saying its forces would keep retaking territory regardless of what Moscow or its proxies announced.

The Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom meanwhile on Wednesday accused Russia of again striking the Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant in southern Ukraine.

Europe's largest nuclear facility, located in Russian-held territory, has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks there.

Putin's troop call-up will prolong but not win war: experts
Washington (AFP) Sept 22, 2022 - Western experts predicted Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's new troop mobilization would prolong the war but not change the balance on the ground, and warned against downplaying his renewed nuclear threat.

Putin announced the call-up of 300,000 reservists -- more than the nearly 200,000 mustered to invade Ukraine in February -- after his troops have lost significant parts of territory seized early in the war.

It came as Moscow signaled it was determined to keep occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine by holding local referendums to absorb them into Russia.

But analysts said it was a politically risky move for the Russian leader, with increased domestic resistance to the war and a structure for military mobilization that has atrophied over the past decade.

"They will not be able to do this well," said Dara Massicot, a Russia defense specialist at Rand Corp who has researched the mobilization process.

"They will cobble together people and send them into the front with old training, poor leadership, equipment maintained in even worse shape than the active duty force, and send them in piecemeal because they don't have time to wait."

- Shoring up front lines -

Michael Kofman, a defense specialist at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, cautioned against dismissing the effort.

It will help Moscow fortify the current battle lines under heavy pressure from Ukraine fighters backed by Western arms.

"It's clear the Russian military is very vulnerable going into the winter, and actually looking even worse coming out into 2023," Kofman said Wednesday.

"So what it does do is it may extend the Russian ability to sort of sustain this war, but not change the overall trajectory and outcome."

- Swapping tired troops for untrained -

But Putin's challenge is building a force of replacements with adequate training, equipment, leadership and motivation.

"If you train up these reservists... it's still not that much. The quality of training is still going to be questionable. Who's going to lead them? All these other things are still open questions," said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

"This war is going to be increasingly fought by volunteers on the Ukrainian side who are motivated... and on the Russian side, we're going to see a larger share of people who do not want to be there," he said.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general and defense analyst, says Putin still wants to "prolong the war and out-wait western nations."

"Given combat performance degrades from the 3-4 four month mark, this is an exhausted force which needs rotation," he said on Twitter.

"The numbers being called up are not sufficient to make any decisive contribution or change the outcome of the war... This is more about rotation and replacements," he said.

- Nuclear 'bluff'? -

More concerning was Putin's threat to use nuclear force against any menace to Russia's "territorial integrity."

"We will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff," Putin said, adding: "Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind can also turn in their direction."

White House national security spokesman John Kirby, while calling Putin's words "irresponsible rhetoric," said, "We take it very seriously."

While some analysts dismissed Putin's talk as repeated bluster, others said Putin appeared to have shifted Russia's established nuclear weapons use policy, including leaving unanswered if it applied to the occupied Ukraine territories Moscow wants to annex.

"Threatening nuke use that goes beyond Russian declaratory policy, Putin shows his desperation about his failing war in Ukraine," Hans Kristensen, a nuclear policy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, wrote on Twitter.

"This sounds like another round of chest thumping, but it is clearly the most explicit nuclear threat Putin has made so far," he said.

"It is essential that NATO does not take the bait and fuel his false narrative by explicitly threatening nuclear retaliation."

Andrey Baklitskiy of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research said Putin's statements "go beyond the Russian nuclear doctrine, which only suggests Russian first use in a conventional war when the very existence of the state is threatened."

"Coming from the person who has the sole decision-making power regarding Russian nuclear weapons, this will have to be taken seriously," he said.

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China calls for 'ceasefire through dialogue' following Putin address on Ukraine
Beijing (AFP) Sept 21, 2022
China called Wednesday for a "ceasefire through dialogue and consultation" following Russian President Vladimir Putin's address on Ukraine, in which he announced a partial military mobilisation. "We call on the relevant parties to realise a ceasefire through dialogue and consultation, and find a solution that accommodates the legitimate security concerns of all parties as soon as possible," China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press briefing. Putin announced the mobilisa ... read more