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.



Russia Says It Downed over 150 Drones in One of the Biggest Ukrainian Drone Attacks of the War

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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Russia Says It Downed over 150 Drones in One of the Biggest Ukrainian Drone Attacks of the War

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the city of Moscow and nine over the surrounding Moscow region, the defense ministry said Sunday.

Forty-six of the drones were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. A further were 34 over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region — all of which border Ukraine.

Drones were also shot down deeper into Russia, including one each in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, and the Ivanovo region, northeast of the Russian capital. Russia's Defense Ministry said drones were intercepted over 15 regions, while one other governor said a drone was shot down over his region, too.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that falling debris from one of the two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery.

Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s assault.

In Ukraine overnight, eight drones were shot down out of 11 launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian air force.

One person was killed and four wounded in shelling in the Sumy region, local officials said, while Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said five people were wounded in shelling in his region.