Russian General Staff promises not to send mandatory-service conscripts to Ukraine or annexed territories

Men conscripted this fall under Russia’s one-year mandatory service requirement will not be sent to the annexed Ukrainian regions, or to Ukraine itself, said Yevgeny Burdinsky, head of the organizational and mobilization department of the Russian General Staff.

This year’s mandatory-term conscription will begin on November 1 — a month later than usual. The postponement is due to the “partial mobilization” announced by President Vladimir Putin on September 21. 120,000 men are to be drafted as part of the mandatory-term conscription.

Burdinsky explained that 24 municipal locations in five Russian regions will be exempt from the fall round of mandatory conscription. Those regions are the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Trans-Baikal, Kamchatka, and Khabarovsk territories, as well as the Chukotka Autonomous District, where conscription is only held in the spring, “due to the physical and geographic conditions.”

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports emerged that mandatory-term conscripts were involved in combat operations. In some cases, officers pressured young soldiers to sign contracts with the Russian army, in order to send them to the front.

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