Russia is moving to a year-round draft system to avoid future call-up delays as President Vladimir Putin launches the semi-annual Fall 2025 conscription cycle, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on 29 September. The decree, signed on 29 September, authorizes the conscription of 135,000 Russian citizens between 1 October and 31 December for 12 months of mandatory military service outside of active combat in Ukraine.
Putin signs decree for fall 2025 conscription
According to ISW, Putin’s decree marks the start of the Fall 2025 draft cycle, which will run from 1 October to 31 December. Russia holds two conscription cycles each year in the spring and fall. The Kremlin has steadily increased the number of conscripts since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia conscripted 134,500 Russians in Spring 2022 and 120,000 in Fall 2022; 147,000 in Spring 2023 and 130,000 in Fall 2023; and 150,000 in Spring 2024 and 133,000 in Fall 2024.
Officials insist conscripts will not fight in Ukraine
Deputy Chief of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the Russian General Staff Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky emphasized on 22 September that the upcoming conscription cycle is not related to the war in Ukraine. He stated that conscripts will only serve on Russian territory and will not conduct tasks connected to the war. This includes occupied Ukrainian territories that Russia illegally defines as “Russian territory.”
Tsimlyansky added that the Russian military command will start sending conscripts to assembly points on 15 October, and that one-third of the conscripts will receive specialized training in training units and at military bases.
Russian conscripts feed future reserve structures
Conscripts from Russia’s semi-annual conscription cycles become reservists after their 12 months of service, and Russia can call them up later. These reservists are different from the active strategic reserve that Russia reportedly began forming in July 2025 from soldiers who signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD). ISW reported that Russian officials continue to deceive and coerce conscripts into signing military contracts with the MoD to increase the number of servicemembers deployed to combat in Ukraine or into the active strategic reserve.
Year-round conscription aims to cut bureaucratic delays
ISW assessed that Russia appears to be taking steps to mitigate bureaucratic bottlenecks that would slow down involuntary reservist call-ups in the future. This includes expanding conscription administrative processes to be year-round. Russian law prohibits the deployment of conscripts to combat, and Russian forces have typically used conscripts for border security, including in Bryansk, Belgorod, and Kursk oblasts. The participation of conscript border guards in combat during the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast caused particular discontent in Russian society, highlighting the political risk of misusing conscripts.
