dpa Putin conscripts
Moscow (DPA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 young men for military service against the backdrop of his war against Ukraine.
Russians aged between 18 and 30 are to be conscripted by mid-July, the relevant presidential decree from Monday said.
This is the highest number of conscripts since the Kremlin began focusing more on professional contract and short-service soldiers as part of army reform since 2012. Twice a year – in the spring and autumn – Russia still calls up more than 100,000 men each time for the one-year military service.
Russia is relying in this conscription campaign on a central electronic database, the General Staff announced. However, the district recruitment offices have not dispensed with printed call-up notices, which would continue to be sent to registered addresses.
Putin conscripts
At the same time, there are also electronic call-up notices, which the young conscripts would receive on their account on the state services website Gosuslugi. Due to the multitude of services managed through the portal, practically all adults in Russia now have a customer account there.
The Kremlin has already increased the troop strength of the Russian army three times since the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Most recently, Putin ordered the increase of the target strength to 2.4 million military personnel last autumn – including 1.5 million soldiers.
Officially, conscripts do not participate in the war against Ukraine, but they have been involved in fighting in the Russian border region multiple times.
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