Desperate Russia in new draft move as Putin keeps losing soldiers

Russian politicians have endorsed a bill mandating year-round military conscription rather than just in autumn and spring. As the war in Ukraine approaches its fourth year, Russia is seeking to fill the ranks in its armed forces.

The legislation, which has been approved by the lower house, the State Duma, in a third and final reading, must now be vetted by the upper house and signed into law by Putin. It would then allow conscription officers to summon draftees for medical exams and other procedures at any time of year. Under the current rules, Russian men aged 18-30 are obliged to serve in the military for a year, though many avoid being drafted through deferments granted to, for example, students and those with chronic illnesses. The military has called up between 130,000 to 160,000 draftees during each round of conscription.

The bill's authors have said the measure is intended to ease pressure on military conscription offices and streamline their activities, which include performing physicals and assigning conscripts to various military branches.

Even though the bill will make conscription a year-round process, it stipulates that conscripts will enter military service only during a few spring and summer months as before.

Russian authorities say the military does not use draftees in Ukraine, relying on volunteers and reservists who were mobilised for action. Human rights activists and media reports have said, however, that the military has sought to encourage or coerce many draftees into signing contracts as volunteers.

Russia, which had an army of one million when Mr Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has gradually increased its size as the fighting dragged on.

Last year, Putin ordered the number of active troops to be increased by 180,000, to 1.5 million. He said last month that the military has over 700,000 troops fighting in Ukraine.

As part of their efforts to combat draft evasion, authorities earlier this year launched an electronic register of conscripts to serve online summonses in some Russian regions. They also introduced a series of legal restrictions for those who ignore the summonses, including banning their bank transactions, suspending their driver's licenses and blocking foreign travel.

Amid Russian military setbacks early in the fighting, Putin ordered a "partial mobilisation" of 300,000 reservists in the autumn of 2022, a widely unpopular move that drove hundreds of thousands to flee abroad to avoid being called for service.

The Kremlin's efforts to increase the ranks come as Mr Putin continues to resist US President Donald Trump's demand for a quick ceasefire and maintains the Kremlin's maximalist demands, which include Ukraine's withdrawal from the four regions that Russia has annexed but never fully captured. Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Putin's demands.

Russia lost more than 1.3 million soldiers since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, according to Kyiv, including 1060 on Monday alone. The Kremlin does not share its war losses.