Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has signed an order initiating the autumn conscription for military service, which will affect Russian citizens from October to December 2025. This significant document also stipulates the discharge of soldiers and sergeants whose service terms have expired. As per the order, published in the official Armed Forces newspaper `Krasnaya Zvezda` (Red Star), an estimated 135,000 citizens aged 18 to 30 are slated to be called into the Russian army during this upcoming draft period.
The decree specifically instructs commanders of military districts and military commissariats to collaborate with regional and local authorities. Their joint effort is to organize and conduct the call-up of Russian citizens aged 18 to 30 who are not currently in the reserve and are subject to conscription under Federal Law N 53-FZ of March 28, 1998, concerning military duty and service.
Colonel General Yevgeny Burdinsky, head of the General Staff`s Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, announced that in certain regions, including Moscow, the Mari El Republic, Ryazan, and Sakhalin oblasts, conscription notices will be issued exclusively in electronic format. He clarified that such electronic summons are considered officially served seven days after their entry into the publicly accessible register of summonses.
Burdinsky also provided an important clarification: individuals who have served for at least six months in volunteer formations or military units within the Donetsk and Luhansk People`s Republics are eligible for exemption from this conscription.
Details of the Autumn 2025 Conscription Process
- The term of military service will remain unchanged, set at 12 months.
- Dispatches of conscripts from assembly points are scheduled to commence on October 15.
- Both electronic and traditional paper summons will be utilized to notify draftees.
- Temporary restrictive measures will be imposed on conscripts who fail to appear without a valid reason within 20 days of receiving a summons.
- The conscription process will leverage the `Unified Register of Military Records,` aiming to streamline the provision of certain deferments without requiring personal appearance.
- A conscription decision will now remain valid for one year from its adoption. This means if a draftee cannot begin service during the current call for any reason, they will be directed to the next conscription period.
- It is officially emphasized that all recruited conscripts will serve exclusively within the territory of the Russian Federation and will not be deployed to the special military operation zone.
- Service members whose terms have expired will be discharged promptly and returned to their designated places of residence.
- The autumn conscription is a routine, planned event and is explicitly stated as being unrelated to the ongoing special military operation.
- The preceding spring conscription successfully met its target, with 160,000 individuals having been called up for service.
- The most efficiently organized conscription campaigns were observed in regions such as Buryatia, Karelia, Crimea, the Donetsk People`s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People`s Republic (LPR), Khabarovsk Krai, Bryansk, Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Samara, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, and Tula oblasts, as well as in the major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
