Putin Talks w/Sec Council After Potential Climb Down Over Mobilisation

Russian state-run media reporting that President Vladimir Putin has held a meeting of the Security Council in which the 'special military operation' in Ukraine was discussed. RIA reports that Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu 'exchanged views on the progress' of the operation. The meeting of the Council comes days after Putin failed to announce any significant developments in what had been billed as a major address from St. Petersburg.

• Speculation had been that Putin could announce a second mobilisation of reserves, or declare the 'special military operation' a war, but in the event neither of these were confirmed.
• The Council meeting comes a day after former president and deputy head of the Security Council Dmitri Medvedev stated that the defeat of Russia could lead to nuclear war, writing “The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war. Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends. This should be obvious to anyone.”
• Medvedev's comments are notable as one of the first times that such a senior official within the Kremlin has even mentioned the possibility of Russia's defeat.