Putin Orders Russian Military Spring Draft To Recruit 147,000 Soldiers

Russia will conscript 147,000 people into its military in the coming months as part of its spring draft this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decreed.

The campaign will take place from Saturday to July 15, covering Russian citizens between the ages of 18 to 27 who are not already military reservists, Putin's office announced in a statement that was published on the Russian presidential website Thursday.

In addition to the draft, Putin also ordered the military dismissal of all soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen whose terms of service have already expired.

All men in Russia within that age bracket are required to undergo a year of military service or equivalent training while in higher education, Reuters reported.

About 130,000 people were supposedly called up in each of Russia's spring and autumn drafts in recent years.

Putin signed an order calling up to 120,000 people back in September for last year's autumn draft, according to a report by the Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

At the time, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed this was not in any way related to the "special military operation" in Ukraine, Russia's term for its ongoing invasion, per Reuters.

New Russian conscripts will not increase Russian combat power in Ukraine in the short term, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

These draftees "must undergo months of training and service before they see combat," the United States-based think tank said in an assessment published Thursday.

"Russia has limited training capacity and allocating it to training conscripts who will not fight in 2023 deprives the Kremlin of the opportunity to train reservists and volunteers who would," the ISW said.

In total, Russia has suffered 173,360 combat losses among its personnel in Ukraine since it started the war in late February of last year, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed in its most recent casualty report released Friday.

Russian losses also included 3,615 tanks, 6,977 armored fighting vehicles and 2,675 artillery systems, among other pieces of military equipment.

Russian forces, including the Wagner Group paramilitary organization, have likely lost "substantial" manpower in the area of Bakhmut, the ISW claimed, citing western officials.

An estimated 30,000 Russian servicemen have already been killed or wounded in the fight for the city, which is located in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province.

"These losses in manpower will continue to constrain Russian offensive operations in the Bakhmut area as well as the wider theater, and Wagner's significant losses will likely threaten its ability to maintain its influential role among Russian forces fighting in Ukraine," the ISW said.