Russia’s Putin Signs Decree on Spring Military Conscription

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, 29 March 2024. (EPA/Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, 29 March 2024. (EPA/Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
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Russia’s Putin Signs Decree on Spring Military Conscription

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, 29 March 2024. (EPA/Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, 29 March 2024. (EPA/Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin's website showed on Sunday.

All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.

In July Russia's lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.

Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilization in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine - although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

In September Putin signed an order calling up 130,000 people for the autumn campaign and last spring Russia planned to conscript 147,000.



Ukraine’s Top General Says Situation ‘Difficult’ around Main Russian Attack

 Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Ukraine’s Top General Says Situation ‘Difficult’ around Main Russian Attack

 Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday the situation was "difficult" around Russia's main attack, which is focused in eastern Ukraine, but that all the necessary decisions were being taken.

Syrskyi did not give the exact location of the main Russian offensive, but earlier both he and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces were targeting the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

"The situation is difficult in the direction of the enemy's main attack. But all the necessary decisions at all levels are being made without delay," Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.

Syrskyi said last week he spent several days on the eastern front near Pokrovsk and described fighting there as "exceptionally tough".

Russia, which has captured swathes of eastern Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, continues to inch forward there in heavy fighting.

The gains have continued since Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia's west Kursk region on Aug. 6, apparently aimed at diverting Russian resources and strengthening Kyiv's position in any future negotiations.