Russia could raise draft age limit to 30, entry age to be raised to 21 because people 'grow up' later

South China Morning Post
Fri, 13 Jan 2023 02:57 UTC

© Reuters

A Russian reservist called up in Putin’s partial mobilisation bids farewell to relatives and acquaintances in Omsk on January 6.

Russia could raise the upper age limit for citizens to be conscripted into the armed forces as soon as this spring, a senior lawmaker has said, as part of Moscow's plans to boost the number of Russian troops by 30 per cent.

President Vladimir Putin gave his backing in December to defence ministry proposals to raise the age range for mandatory military service to cover Russian citizens aged 21-30, rather than the current range of 18-27.

The chairman of the Russian parliament's defence committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said in an interview with the official parliamentary newspaper that Russia could raise the upper age limit for conscription to 30 for this year's spring draft. But only after a one-to-three year "transition period" would the lower limit be raised from 18 to 21 years, Kartapolov said.

Critics said the idea of a transition period was a transparent attempt to increase the number of Russians eligible to be called up for military service to plug massive manpower shortages resulting from heavy losses in the war in Ukraine.

Comment: Comparatively, it's Ukraine that is suffering the 'heavy losses'

Russians search for Jewish ancestry to flee military draft

Kartapolov later dismissed such an interpretation, saying there were no plans to increase the number of conscripts once the draft age has risen to 21.

Comment: Russia has also stated before that they prefer to not force people into the military because they just don't make good soldiers.

"The number of conscripts we have is decreasing every year. And that number will not be increased," TASS news agency quoted him as saying, adding that the number envisaged was in the region of 200,000.

Russia's armed forces are a mix of contracted soldiers and conscripts. Shoigu has outlined plans to increase the total number of combat personnel to 1.5 million from 1.15 million.

Asked about the possible changes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin "conceptually supported" raising the conscription age, but the exact details were up to the defence ministry to work out.

The role of conscripts in Ukraine came under intense focus soon after Russia's invasion last February, with the defence ministry acknowledging some had been sent to fight there despite statements from Putin that this would not happen.

In September, Russia announced its first mobilisation since World War II, calling up more than 300,000 former soldiers - including ex-conscripts - in an emergency draft to support the war in Ukraine.

Western governments say Russia has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in nearly 11 months of fighting.

Comment: Top War reported on the officially admitted losses back in September, and they are much lower than the total claimed above:

According to him, the losses of the Russian group within the NMD, starting from February 24, 2022, amounted to 5937 people. Shoigu did not provide information on the wounded, but based on the ratio of the dead to the wounded as 1 to 3, their number should be approximately 18-20 thousand. Prior to this, the Ministry of Defense only once spoke about our losses and it happened in March. At that time, we lost 1351 people dead, there were over 3,8 thousand wounded.

I can't say enough about losses. Losses amount to 5937 people. And here again and again I cannot fail to note our guys who courageously do their duty - the minister said.

Most likely, this figure does not include the losses of the NM units of the DPR and LPR, as well as the "musicians" from the Wagner PMC. The first and second corps of the NM will enter the structure of the Ministry of Defense only after the republics join Russia. At the initial stage, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were about 201-202 thousand people. During this time, more than 100 thousand of their losses. At the same time, the dead - 61 thousand 207 people and the wounded - 49 thousand 368 people
- added the head of the Ministry of Defense.

Top War also reported on the proposals to change the age for conscription back in December:

The need to raise the draft age is associated with the consequences of general socio-cultural transformations in modern society. Now young people "grow up" later than their peers of the past decades. An increase in the age of conscription for military service will make it possible to conscript physically and psychologically mature young men into the army.