Nearly 200,000 people have enlisted in the Russian army in 2024, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. The average recruitment rate is “about 1,000 people per day,” the ministry wrote on Telegram on Thursday.
Russia has conducted a wide-scale recruitment campaign since launching its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Last month, President Vladimir Putin said around 700,000 troops are deployed in the conflict zone.
In recent months, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Western media have claimed that Russia is planning a second wave of mobilization. The first took place in September 2022, when Moscow announced plans to call up 300,000 additional soldiers.
Speaking at an event in St. Petersburg last month, Putin insisted there was no need for any new mobilization in addition to the regular draft.
The Ukrainian army, meanwhile, has been struggling to replenish its ranks after a failed 2023 counteroffensive and intense fighting in Donbass. In April, Kiev lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25, gave more powers to enlistment officers, and increased the penalties for draft dodgers. Ukrainian officials have also complained that delays in the deliveries of Western weapons have led to more casualties.
According to Putin, Russian forces have liberated 47 settlements and over 880 square kilometers of land since the beginning of the year, “gradually pushing the enemy out of Donbass.”