Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the conscription of 133 000 new soldiers for Russia’s autumn draft, which will start on the 1st of October and last until the end of the year on the 31st of December, according to a Kremlin decree published on Monday, the 30th of September, reports Reuters.
The decree, published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia’s state-run newspaper, calls for the conscription of citizens “aged between 18 and 30 who are not in the reserve and who are subject to conscription under the Federal Law – 133 000 people”.
The head of the Russian conscription service, Vice-Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, said that the conditions for conscription remain unchanged – 12 months’ service in Russian military units.
“I would like to note that conscripts will not be drafted to participate in special military operations in the new regions,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta quoted Tsimlyansky as saying.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, is seen by Kyiv and its allies as an unprovoked invasion. At the end of 2022, Russia annexed part of south-eastern Ukraine, calling the land “new regions”.
In response to the growing threat on Russia’s western borders, Putin ordered in September an increase of 180 000 troops to 1.5 million active soldiers, making Russia the second largest army in the world after China.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders see Putin as the sole aggressor.