The Russian military has two conscription cycles that take place twice a year, one in the spring and another in the fall.
On the last days of September, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the semi-annual conscription for the Russian military. The process began on October 1 and will run until the last day of the war. The Kremlin expects to gather approximately 135,000 men from the process. This would be the highest fall conscription target.
The Russian Military’s Conscription Season
Like many European countries, Russia has a national service system, where men are expected to serve in the military for a set time and then join the reserves.
The current conscription order covers adult men between the ages of 18 and 30. In past years, the upper age limit was 27 until 2023, but the heavy losses in Ukraine forced the Kremlin to widen its conscription nets even further.
The Russian military has two conscription cycles that take place twice a year, one in the spring and another in the fall. Spring cycles tend to produce more troops. For example, in the latest conscription cycle, the Russian Army conscripted approximately 160,000 troops in the spring of 2025. In the autumn of 2024, it conscripted 133,000 men, and in the spring of 2024, approximately 150,000 men.
Although in past years, the order affected only Russia, it also applies to the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, namely, Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Potential conscripts are not allowed to leave the country one week after the digital registration process begins. There are various legal and monetary penalties for those who fail to respond to a conscription summons.
A Change in the Process
Russia’s current conscription program is changing, however. In September, Russian lawmakers passed the first reading of a bill that is designed to allow for a year-long conscription instead of the current biannual approach.
“This will likely provide a continuous flow of conscripts for the Russian army. Whilst this will allow the pre-draft processes to be distributed throughout the year, it is a realistic possibility that this change will also desensitize the population to the process,” the British Ministry of Defense assessed in its latest intelligence estimate on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Russian High Command has generally avoided sending conscripts to fight on the front lines. Even in an autocratic political environment like the one in Russia, the political cost of university-aged Russian men getting killed in Ukraine is too much for Putin and the Kremlin.
Instead, the Russian military tasks conscripts with assignments that free up professional troops so that they can deploy to the frontlines.
“They are used to guard Russian borders and secure military sites, operating in rear areas to free up contract soldiers for the front. Conscripts were highly likely involved in fighting in Russia’s Kursk oblast following Ukraine’s incursion into the region in August 2024, with 250 reportedly captured as prisoners of war,” the British Ministry of Defense added.
However, conscripts are generally pressured to sign full-time contracts once their mandatory national service ends. Those who do, most often than not, end up on the front lines. With over 1,100,000 killed and wounded on the Russian side so far, chances are not in favor of those who do deploy to Ukraine.
About the Author: Stavros Atlamazoglou
Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
Image: By Мацква.ру – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons, resized.
