Moscow, April 11, (dpa/GNA) – Russian lawmakers on Tuesday approved changes to conscription laws that will make it easier to draft Russian men into military service, a move that some observers feared could be a prelude to another mass mobilization for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that another wave of conscriptions was being planned, describing the measure as part of the digitization of daily life.
The changes to the conscription law mean notices no longer have to be delivered to recruits in person and acknowledged with a signature but can be dispatched electronically.
Recruits sent a notice electronically will not be allowed to leave the country and will be required to report to the military commissariat within 20 days or face severe punishment.
Russian law had previously required that a conscription summons to be handed over in person. Many Russians were able to avoid conscription by not living at their registered address. In September, hundreds of thousands fled during the sometimes chaotically organized partial mobilization for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Deputies in the State Duma, Russia’s national parliament, approved the changes on Tuesday in a flash vote, although some deputies complained they hadn’t had time to read the law.
A final vote and approval from Russian President Vladimir Putin are considered formalities.
Also on Tuesday, the head of Russia’s Wagner Group claimed that his mercenary fighters have captured most of the contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after months of heavy fighting.
“The majority of Bakhmut, effectively more than 80% is under our control,” Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published by a Russian military blogger.
The report could not be independently verified.
Prigozhin said that fighting was continuing in residential areas with high-rise buildings, but that all the industrial areas and municipal buildings were in Russian possession. His comments largely aligned with the findings of Western experts, such as the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Prigozhin also confirmed that Russian regular forces were protecting the flanks of the Wagner mercenaries, with airborne units deployed to the north and south of the devastated city.
British military intelligence, meanwhile, predicted on Tuesday that those Russian airborne troops will play a growing role in Russian offensive operations in Ukraine after initially suffering heavy losses during the first few months of the war.
NATO member Lithuania announced on Tuesday that it would send military instructors to help train Ukrainian troops at a base in Germany.
The Lithuanian experts will work alongside German and Belgian instructors as part of a joint European Union effort to build up the Ukrainian armed forces as they try to battle back against Russian invaders.
GNA