Intense Pressures: How Russia Exploited the Invasion of Ukraine to Impose Open Military Conscription

The Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 2022 has provided the Kremlin with ample opportunity to enact successive laws, placing Russian youth in a state of perpetual conscription and militarization.

From the outset of the invasion, Moscow has enacted legislation compelling young people to engage in military service, tailoring it to all age groups to ensure the conscription of more individuals into its ranks.

'Spring Campaign'

In the latest move, the Russian General Staff announced on March 29, 2024, the launch of a spring military recruitment campaign beginning in early April of the same year, targeting thousands of youths aged between 18 and 30.

Speaking at a press conference, Deputy Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, a senior official in the General Staff, stated that all recruits would serve for one year on "Russian Federation territory," but they "would not participate in Russia's military operation."

Tsimlyansky clarified that "they will not be sent to the deployment sites of the armed forces in the new Russian areas," meaning the four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia) occupied and annexed by Moscow in 2022 in a move unrecognized by the international community.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it became evident that Moscow had categorized recruitment operations to justify its legality with each new conscription of Russian youth.

Since the attack, Russian authorities have decreed the mobilization of over 300,000 individuals in the autumn of 2022.

Then, in 2023, the spring campaign saw the recruitment of 147,000, while the autumn campaign witnessed 130,000 recruits joining the Russian army, according to the Ministry of Defense.

In the summer of 2023, Russia passed a law raising the recruitment age from 27 to 30 years (previously up to 27 years) starting from January 1, 2024.

In December 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during his annual press conference that 617,000 soldiers were present in Ukraine as part of the military operation.

Notably, Russian authorities have not specified the number of youths targeted by the spring campaign, which continues until mid-July 2024.

The spring campaign will focus on those who are not currently in the reserves but are eligible for compulsory conscription.

In Russia, the conscription law mandates military service for one year starting at the age of 18, either directly or through equivalent training within higher education frameworks, with plans to recruit 150,000 individuals.

Such new laws, altering the ages of conscription, conceal a strong desire by the Russian defense to draw these individuals into actual operations in Ukraine.

Bypass Operation

Russian media reports suggest that authorities are actively trying to persuade or coerce many recruits to sign contracts as volunteers, aiming to leverage the accumulation of recruitment operations since the onset of the Ukrainian invasion, which Putin seeks to achieve victory in "at any cost."

Many men in Russia go to great lengths to avoid submitting conscription papers during the biannual summons.

Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia, and they were exempted from limited mobilization in 2022, where at least 300,000 received military training previously intended for fighting in Ukraine — though some conscripts were reportedly sent to the frontlines inadvertently.

In this context, new arrivals will replace current conscripts in the Russian forces' rear base, who may not necessarily be discharged.

Some may have to resort to coercion to sign up and leave for the Ukrainian front, according to Nicolas Richoux, former commander of the German Army's 7th Armored Brigade, who added in an interview with the French channel LCI that given the biannual recruitment campaigns (spring and autumn), each involving around 130,000 individuals, totaling approximately 260,000 annually, the Russian army will need to find volunteers to go to the front lines elsewhere than those exiting compulsory conscription.

In recent months, Russia has announced battlefield progress in Ukraine against the Kyiv army, which lacks sufficient troops and equipment due to the depletion of Western aid.

Resistance to the Operation

Compulsory military service remains a sensitive issue in Russia, with many individuals resorting to various measures to avoid conscription during the semi-annual call-up periods.

Russian authorities have therefore put obstacles in the way of these individuals' evasion of such recruitment campaigns.

In the spring 2023 recruitment campaign, the Russian press reported that the Kremlin secretly instructed regions of the country to enroll 400,000 new volunteers by the end of that year.

Ordinary Russian citizens reported recruitment campaigns accompanied by promises of hefty financial rewards for registrants.

Additionally, regular summons for reserve service began to be sent through the government's mobile application, requiring a personal visit, after which pressure is exerted on young people to register to go to the front lines.

The difficulty of convincing ordinary Russian citizens to join the war effort was a problem dating back to the initial mobilization in September 2022.

According to unofficial data, around 200,000 people were recruited during the first wave of mobilization, significantly less than the target of 300,000.

At that time, financial coercion was also employed, with wages for joining being about ten times higher than the average wage in some areas.

Simultaneously, national lectures were held in state institutions as part of the social pressure campaign for recruitment.

Tactics were also employed to stop men of conscription age in shopping centers, universities, subway exits, and public squares, threatening them with fines and criminal liability for evasion.

Russian legislators rushed to pass new legislation in 2023 allowing authorities to deliver conscription notices electronically, making it nearly impossible to evade conscription.

Further, the streets of Russian cities have turned into recruitment propaganda arenas, urging young people to join from a "patriotic" standpoint.

Once enlisted, recruits face intense pressure to sign voluntary military contracts that allow them to be sent to fight in Ukraine.

However, the rising number of casualties among Russian forces and the Defense Ministry's refusal to allow them to visit their families or grant them warrior breaks has led to a strong trend of desertion from military service.

On the Ukrainian front, the effectiveness of mobilization waves is measured by the number of casualties and the failure to invade Ukrainian territory.

At least 150,000 Russians have been killed since the war began, according to estimates.

In March 2024, the team of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in his prison on February 16 of that year, urged individuals who had received military draft orders to ignore them and not to report to recruitment offices.

It appears that Putin, who won a new presidential term for the next 6 years, is aware of the difficulty of the new recruitment operations nationwide, which are unpopular due to the high number of casualties and the hardships on the battlefield. However, he still needs more forces if he wishes to turn the tide of the war in his favor.