Putin orders biggest autumn army call-up since 2016 | International

MOSCOW, Sept 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin onMonday called up 135,000 men for routine military service, the country'sbiggest autumn conscription drive since 2016. Russia calls up men aged between 18 and 30 for compulsory military serviceeach spring and autumn. Conscripts are expected to serve for a year at a military base inside Russia,not to fight in Ukraine, although there have been reports of conscripted menbeing sent to the front line. Russia's annual conscription campaigns are unrelated to mobilisation, inwhich Russian men are drafted to fight during wartime. But conscripts who have completed military training are more likely to becalled up to fight in the future. In a decree issued Monday, Putin ordered "the conscription of 135,000citizens of...