Russian Military Personnel Mobilization 2022
The law ( Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "Issues of military service") does not prohibit sending conscripts for military service to areas of military operations. But it provides for two conditions: this can be done only four months after the start of the service, and the conscript soldier must receive a military registration specialty. After that, a person can carry out military service, including in combat conditions.
Conducting a second wave of mobilization is not in the plans of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, since there are enough volunteers and already called-up citizens to complete the tasks. This was stated 31 March 2023 by the head of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate (GOMU) of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Rear Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky. "I want to assure you all that the plans of the General Staff do not include a second wave of mobilization. Those who have already been called up for military service, as well as citizens who have voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the operation, are quite enough to fulfill the assigned tasks," he said during a briefing. dedicated to the spring call.
Tsimlyansky also noted that the RF Ministry of Defense had expanded the network of contract service selection points, since "at present, the number of citizens who have decided to voluntarily enter military service under the contract had also increased significantly." In addition, according to him, in connection with this, the number of instructors for working with candidates had also been increased. Work on recruitment for the contract continues in close cooperation with the state authorities of the subjects.
On 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in response to an appeal from the leaders of the Donbass republics , decided to conduct a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow's plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. On March 24, the UN General Assembly adopted a Western resolution on Ukraine, which holds Russia responsible for the crisis.
Reuters cited two European diplomats saying Russian conscripts were told they were taking part in military exercises but had to sign for extended duty before the invasion. “They were misled, badly trained and then arrived to find old Ukrainian women who looked like their grandmothers yelling at them to go home,” one of the diplomats told the news agency 31 March 2022.
The Ministry of Defense stated that sending conscripts to war was excluded. By law, they can be sent to the combat zone no earlier than four months after the start of military service. Among those who are sent to the border, even those conscripts who were called up only in December 2021 and who had not yet had time to undergo the necessary training. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on 09 March 2022 that "some of the conscripts" had been captured by Ukrainian armed forces, adding that "almost all of the conscripts" had been recalled from Ukrainian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin received a report on the implementation of his instructions to categorically exclude the involvement of conscripts to perform tasks on the territory of Ukraine, on his behalf, materials were sent to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office for a legal assessment of the actions and punishment of officials responsible for failure to comply with this instruction, the press secretary of the head of State Dmitry Peskov said 09 March 2022.
The Russian army also for the first time openly admitted that its servicemen were captured by Ukraine. Previously, such messages were not commented on or refuted by the authorities at all levels. The number of those taken prisoner was not named. Authorities are said to be "taking exhaustive measures" to release the prisoners and keep conscripts out of combat in the future.
Immediately after the start of the war, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers reported that before the entry of troops to the Ukrainian border, conscripts were transferred, some of whom were forced to sign contracts. The chairman of the board of the organization, Olga Larkina, told the publication that since the beginning of the week, the committee had received dozens of calls from mothers who complained that their conscript sons were rushed to the Ukrainian border, given bulletproof vests and military weapons. Mothers write in the comments in the VKontakte groups that their sons-soldiers, deployed to the border with Ukraine, have stopped communicating. According to Larkina, young people were forced to sign contracts. Those who refuse to sign a contract have their military tickets taken away and stamped, or contracts are signed for them, said the chairman of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers.
It is no surprise that some sharp practice is entered into in order to meet conscription quotas. Some of this activity amounts to press-ganging. Cases are known in which a young man had gone off to his place of work or education in the morning and had found himself in a military unit by that evening. Everything is done in a day, so the youth is unable to contest his illegal induction. It seems that even if the conscript is medically unfit for service, it is not the commissariat’s problem. If he is found to be unfit once he gets to his training unit, then he will still have been registered and thus will have helped to fulfil the commissariat’s target.
The prosecutor of the Western Military District, Artur Egiev, said 07 June 2022 that twelve officers were held accountable for the participation of about 600 conscripts in a special operation, all conscripts have already been returned to Russia. Speaking at the Federation Council , Yegiyev said that "from the very beginning of the special military operation, the military prosecutor's office of the Western Military District had been constantly accompanying the troops."
"The facts of the participation of conscripts in it were established. At the moment, all of them have been returned. For all the violations that we have identified, responses have been carried out ... According to the supervision of the prosecutor's office of the Western Military District, because several districts are connected there, about 600 (conscripts participated in a special operation. - Approx. ed.)," he said.
Russia's partial mobilization has been completed, with 300,000 reservists drafted as planned, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on 28 October 2022. The draft was announced in September amid Moscow's ongoing military operation in Ukraine. "The dispatch of citizens conscripted for mobilization was completed today," Shoigu told Putin. "Citizen notification has been discontinued. The task set by you - 300,000 people - has been fulfilled. No additional tasks were planned. Military commissariats within the framework of the special military operation will continue to replenish the troops only by accepting volunteers and candidates for military service under the contract," he said. According to the defense minister, 82,000 mobilized troops were sent to the conflict zone. Another 218,000 draftees were getting ready for combat duty at training centers and at training grounds.
According to reports by some Russian outlets and Bloomberg, which cited anonymous officials involved in Russian war planning, the Kremlin was seeking to sign up as many as 400,000 contract soldiers, who typically serve for three-year terms, in 2023.
Since the beginning of March 2023, a growing number of military age men in 43 administrative regions across Russia have been receiving summonses to report to their local enlistment offices in what could be preparations for another round of military mobilization in the country, Russian human rights lawyers and advocacy groups said. According to data compiled by various groups based on screenshots and photos of the summonses, the growing number had mostly been directed to reservists and university students that deferred military service because of their studies.
Many of those who received a summons had not reported to their local office, according Go by the Forest, a Russian antiwar organization that aimed to help Russians avoid being mobilized to fight in Ukraine, but RFE/RL confirmed that at least one reservist was immediately sent to a training camp after reporting to update his information at a military office in Russia's Tyumen region in western Siberia. The mailed documents require them to go to a nearby military office and confirm and update their personnel files and contact information.
Russian legal experts and activists who spoke to RFE/RL believe this is part of a drive by the authorities to recruit new contract soldiers to fight in Ukraine and create an up to date database of reservists in anticipation of a potential new wave of mass mobilization like the one in September that sought to bring 300,000 new personnel into the fight. particularly high numbers had been sent to Russian administrative areas in Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, and the Jewish Autonomous Region in the Far East.
The ambitious recruiting also coincided with Russia's spring conscription for military service on April 1 and could be part of attempts by the Kremlin to avoid another round of forced mobilization, which triggered a mass exodus of military age men and sparked backlash from the public. Given the lower than expected number for new volunteers and the Kremlin's apparent determination to keep the war going, that another round is inevitable and the summons campaign is laying the groundwork for when that time comes.
It had been commonplace for a military officer to be present when diplomas are issued to graduating students and only those that can prove to the officer that they responded to their summons and reported to an enlistment office are given their diplomas by staff.
Valery Kotelnikov, a local journalist working in Krasnoobsk, a city on the outskirts of Novosibirsk in Siberia, told RFE/RL that he was handed a summons immediately after he asked some "uncomfortable questions" of local officials at a public hearing about problems with an upcoming government project in the area. He said that before he was able to leave the building he was approached by a woman from the local military enlistment office and was handed a summons that said he was required to report to his local office and clarify his personal details.
It turned out that although soldiers in the army should be provided with "everything necessary", in reality, military personnel have to spend large sums of money to purchase additional equipment, food and medicine. Recruits are strongly advised to bring everything from home with them, from toothbrushes, soap and paste, to chocolate, instant cereals and canned food. In addition, future military personnel are asked to bring a variety of items of clothing, including several pairs of shorts, socks, insoles for shoes and the shoes themselves (comfortable berets), thermal underwear, T-shirts, sweaters, gloves, hats, and are also advised to take their own backpack with a first-aid kit that needs to be filled with medicines for almost all diseases.
So far, only the authorities of the Moscow region have announced centralized purchases of additional equipment for the mobilized. The rest need to carry out retrofitting at their own expense. In the military registration and enlistment offices, the mobilized are given long lists of necessary things that you should have with you when you enter the collection point. Observers note that in order to transport all this belongings, conscripts may need a " separate suitcase ".
Ukraine’s 2023 counterattack can only lead to a robust response from Russia. This would require a new mobilisation of military personnel, such as the one last September, when President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of military reservists. The Pandora’s box had been opened; nothing can prevent Moscow from mobilising 300,000 or 600,000 more men, or even one million. Russia had crossed the line and there are no more limits – except practical ones, since it is impossible to transform civilians into competent troops overnight, without adequate training.
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