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Putin signs decree on spring conscription of 160,000 Russians

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on the spring conscription of 160,000 Russians.

This was reported by the Russian media, Komersant ukrainskyi.

Russians aged 18 to 30 will be drafted from April 1 to July 15, 2025.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the draft is not related to the war against Ukraine. Thus, they promise not to send conscripts to the deployment points of the Russian Armed Forces and not to involve them in performing tasks in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

According to the Russian service of Radio Liberty, in 2024, the spring draft covered 150,000 Russians, in 2023 – 147,000, and in 2022 – 134,500. This increase is due to Putin’s decrees to gradually increase the size of the Russian army.

As a reminder, in September 2024, the head of the Russian Federation also signed a decree on the autumn conscription for military service. At that time, 133 thousand Russians were drafted.

And in September 2022, the Russian leader announced a partial mobilization in Russia. According to the then-Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, a total of 300,000 reservists were to be called up during the partial mobilization.

And last year, Putin increased the staffing of the Russian armed forces by 179,000 to 2 million 389,000 people.