Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country to conscript 160,000 men to join the Russian military as the war in Ukraine continues amid the U.S.-led peace deal negotiations with Russia and Ukraine.
According to CNN, Putin recently signed a decree to authorize the next phase of the bi-annual conscription for the Russian military. The outlet noted that the next phase of military conscription, which includes men between the ages of 18 and 30, started on Tuesday and will run through July 15.
Fox News reported that the latest military conscription decree represents Russia’s largest military draft in 14 years. According to Fox News, Russia conscripted 150,000 men last year and 134,500 men in 2022 for service in the Russian military.
Both the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation have claimed that the new Russian conscripts are not being sent into combat with Ukraine and that the draft is not related to the country’s war in Ukraine, according to Fox News. However, the outlet noted that some of Russia’s conscripts were previously taken prisoners by Ukraine when the Ukrainian military launched an offensive in the Kursk region of Russia last August.
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Russia’s latest conscription effort comes as Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, told Reuters on Monday that the country is still “working on” a peace deal with Ukraine. Peskov’s comment came after President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” by Putin’s recent criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News that Putin’s plan to conscript 160,000 more men to serve in the Russian military is intended to extend the fighting in Ukraine.
“There’s no ceasefire and no peace plan between Russia and Ukraine to be had,” Koffler said. “What President Trump seeks is regretfully, unachievable. Putin’s goal is to keep fighting, in order to compel Ukraine to capitulate.”
Koffler told Fox News that Putin’s conscription effort is also intended to ensure that Russia continues to have a significant manpower advantage over Ukraine. According to Fox News, Putin previously indicated that Russia should increase the size of its military to roughly 2.39 million service members, including 1.5 million active service members.
“Now that Germany and France are considering to deploy reassurance forces into Ukraine, Putin is factoring in those numbers, so he is increasing his force’s posture, to deter such a deployment or failing to prevent it by force,” the former DIA intelligence officer said.
Koffler added, “Putin has prepared Russia for a long, protracted conflict, in which he wants the Russian forces to be ready to fight till the last Ukrainian and the last missile in the NATO arsenal.”
© American Military News
