Putin orders conscription of 133,000 servicemen in Russia’s autumn draft

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(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the conscription of 133,000 new servicemen in Russia’s autumn draft that starts Oct. 1 and goes until the end of the year, according to a Kremlin decree published on Monday.

The decree, published in Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, calls to carry out the draft of citizens “aged 18 to 30 years, who are not in the reserve and are subject to conscription in accordance with the Federal Law … in the amount of 133,000 people.”

The head of Russia’s conscription office, Vice-Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky said that the terms for the conscript remain the same: 12-month service in military units in Russia.

“I would like to note that conscripts will not be called up to participate in the special military operation in the new regions,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta cited Tsimlyansky as saying.

Russia calls its war in Ukraine, which it started with a full-scale invasion in February 2022, a special military operation. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked, imperialistic attempt to grab land.

In a move condemned by most of the Western world, Russia annexed parts of southeastern Ukraine in late 2022, calling the land ‘new regions.’

Citing growing threats on Russia’s western borders, Putin in September ordered the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen, a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders have blamed Putin for being the sole aggressor in the conflict in Ukraine and posing threats to other of its neighbours.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Bill Berkrot)