Russia plans to increase age range for required 1-year military service
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to increase the age for military conscription, a move aimed at expanding Moscow’s army ranks with a bigger pool of trained recruits who could potentially join the battle in Ukraine.
The measure reflects the Kremlin’s long-term plans to bolster its military while avoiding a general mobilization, in which Russian men who have served in the military — up to 70 years old in the highest ranks — could be called up. Russian President Vladimir Putin has carefully tried to avoid a larger mobilization in order to maintain support for the war.
The new measure, which still needs the approval of the upper house of parliament, applies to the year of military service required of all Russian men. Starting next year, those ages 18 to 30 will be required to serve; previously, it was 18 to 27. The bill also prohibits men who have been conscripted from leaving the country, an attempt to cut down on draft dodging.
The legislation, along with a number of other measures Russian legislators passed this year, highlights how the Kremlin is seeking to strengthen its military for what it has depicted as an existential conflict with the West.
Russia has for the most part fended off Ukraine’s attempts so far to pierce its lines, but the fighting has been slow and bloody. The move is the latest sign that the Russian president, despite heavy battlefield losses, is bracing for a long war.
While Putin has vowed that Russian draft conscripts serving for a year would not be sent to Ukraine, they serve in regions on its border and represent trained recruits who can potentially sign contracts to be sent to battle.
It was not immediately clear to what extent the expansion will increase the conscription pool. But Igor Yefremov, a demographer at the Gaidar Institute in Moscow, told RBC, a Russian news website, that he estimated that it would increase from 6.8 million to 9.14 million in 2024.
The draft law needs approval by the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, whose speaker already promised support. It then goes to be signed by Putin.
The plan to change the mandatory conscription age was first announced by Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu at the end of last year, as part of a plan to expand the Russian army from around 1.15 million to 1.5 million servicemen.
Initially, the plan was to shift the age range for conscription from 18 to 27 to 21 to 30. But last week, lawmakers posted new amendments making it 18 to 30.
Last week, the Russian parliament also extended by five years the maximum age at which men can be part of a general mobilization for the army, raising the age for the highest-ranking officers in the reserves up to 70. Earlier changes to the Russian legislation also made it more difficult for potential recruits to dodge general mobilization or the mandatory draft.
The Russian Defense Ministry has also been moving aggressively to recruit new volunteers to fight in Ukraine. On July 4, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, who now holds a high-ranking security position, said that more than 185,000 recruits joined the Russian army since the beginning of this year.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.