Vladimir Putin has ordered 160,000 men to be drafted into the Russian army by mid-summer despite claiming to be working towards peace with Ukraine.
The record-high conscription drive suggests Russia is planning to boost its ranks after months of sustained losses in trying to expel the last of Kyiv’s troops from Kursk and in its slow grind forward into Ukraine’s east.
Russian men aged 18-30 are eligible to be drafted for mandatory military service through bi-annual call-ups in spring and autumn.
Each time Russia has grown its army, its defence ministry has denied any link to the Ukraine conflict and claimed that the conscripts would not be sent into active combat.
In a decree published on Monday, Putin demanded the draft size for this year’s spring conscription hit 160,000 by July 15, up from 150,000 in 2024, 147,000 in 2023 and 134,500 in 2022.
“The forthcoming draft campaign is in no way connected with the special military operation in Ukraine,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of taking Russian conscripts captive while sending ill-equipped and badly trained troops into “meatgrinder” assaults on the front line.
The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update said that Russia “has likely” sustained more than 900,000 casualties during three years of war with Ukraine.
On Sunday, Donald Trump vented frustration at his Russian counterpart for making slow progress towards a ceasefire.
He was “very angry, p—ed off” with Putin for attacking Volodymyr Zelensky’s “credibility” and seemingly stalling peace negotiations by demanding the Ukrainian leader be replaced.
The US president threatened to introduce “secondary tariffs” on Russian energy exports, targeting countries that buy Russian oil and gas with sanctions, if talks did not progress.
In response, the Kremlin said it viewed efforts to end the war in Ukraine as “a drawn-out process”.
“There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman said.
He added that Putin is still “open” to contact with Trump, and although no phone call was currently scheduled, one could be “organised promptly”.
Mr Trump on Sunday also accused Mr Zelensky of trying to “back out” of signing a long-contested deal with the US over his country’s rare minerals.
He told reporters on Air Force One: “He’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that he’s got some problems, big, big problems.”
The US president speaks to reporters on board Air Force One on his return to Washington – Kevin Lamarque
The latest version of the minerals deal would give the US access to Ukraine’s oil, gas and minerals through a joint investment fund, which would split revenue between the two countries.
On Friday, Mr Zelensky said that he would not sign the deal if it threatened Ukraine’s potential accession to the EU, as reports emerged that it could go against the bloc’s economic sovereignty rules.
Despite forceful US efforts to broker a ceasefire, the Ukrainian leader said late on Sunday that there had been no let-up in Russian attacks, including on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure despite a fragile deal to halt such tactics.
Accusing Russia of being unwilling to forge any kind of truce, Mr Zelensky said: “The geography and brutality of Russian strikes.. .show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy.”
In the early hours of Monday, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, once again came under heavy Russian drone attack, resulting in three injuries and fires throughout the city. Further aerial attacks targeted the Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
