Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to enlist 133,000 young men for mandatory military service this fall and winter, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Along with the 150,000 men drafted in the spring, the Russian military will have conscripted 283,000 men by the end of 2024. In the 2023 fall call-up, Russia drafted 130,000 men.
This latest draft comes two weeks after Putin set a target of 1.5 million active servicemen by the end of 2024.
Compulsory military service is required of all Russian men aged 18-30 to gain basic military training. Avoiding conscription is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Under Russian law, conscripts can be deployed to combat zones for only four months after being drafted and completing basic training. However, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin assured the public that conscripts would not take part in combat operations.
Despite this, soldiers’ rights groups have told The Moscow Times that while not officially banned, sending conscripts to combat has been generally avoided by military leadership given the unpopularity of such a move.
Russia’s military confirmed that the newly drafted conscripts will not be deployed to Ukraine and clarified that the country’s new digital draft system will not be used for this fall’s call-up. Recruits will instead receive paper summonses during the Oct. 1-Dec. 31 drafting period.
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