Defense Trends

Russia's Putin orders biggest autumn army call-up since 2016

Russia has been plugging battlefield gaps with a mix of foreign fighters, coerced conscripts and even elite nuclear personnel, anything to avoid another politically explosive mobilization.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a flag-raising ceremony aboard the latest Project 955A (Borey-A) strategic nuclear-powered submarine Knyaz Pozharsky in Severodvinsk on July 24, 2025. [Alexander Kazakov/AFP]
Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a flag-raising ceremony aboard the latest Project 955A (Borey-A) strategic nuclear-powered submarine Knyaz Pozharsky in Severodvinsk on July 24, 2025. [Alexander Kazakov/AFP]

By AFP and Global Watch |

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently called up 135,000 men for routine military service, the country's biggest autumn conscription drive since 2016.

Russia routinely calls up men aged between 18 and 30 for compulsory military service each spring and autumn.

Conscripts are expected to serve for a year at a military base inside Russia, not to fight in Ukraine, although there have been reports of conscripted men being sent to the front line.

Russia's annual conscription campaigns are unrelated to mobilization, in which Russian men are drafted to fight during wartime.

But conscripts who have completed military training are more likely to be called up to fight in the future.

In a decree issued on September 29, Putin ordered "the conscription of 135,000 citizens of the Russian Federation from October 1 to December 31, 2025."

Foreign fighters

This is the biggest autumn conscription drive since 2016, and, combined with the 160,000 called up in the spring, means 2025 is set to be the largest total call-up since that year too.

Russia typically calls up more men in the spring campaign, between April and July, when most people graduate from school or college.

Since launching his full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has put Russia on a war footing, boosting military spending to levels unseen since the Soviet era and expanding the size of the army.

Putin has increased the annual conscription drive by an average of about 5% each year since 2022.

In September 2024, he ordered the expansion of the military to 1.5 million active soldiers -- one of the largest in the world.

Russia has been plugging battlefield gaps with a mix of foreign fighters, coerced conscripts and even elite nuclear personnel, anything to avoid another politically explosive mobilization.

The result has been a short-term fix with long-term consequences: eroded domestic trust, degraded military institutions and growing cracks in the strategic deterrent that underpins the Kremlin's power.

Mercenaries from at least 48 countries have joined Russia's "special military operation," drawn by promises of high wages, combat experience or even Russian citizenship, independent Russian outlet IStories reported in April.

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