MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Russia will be able to deploy around two million military reservists to fight in Ukraine if needed under amendments to the law likely to be backed by parliament, giving it greater flexibility to ramp up the size of its force there.
In a bruising war of attrition, with heavy losses on both sides, the move would free up President Vladimir Putin to refresh and expand Russia’s force in Ukraine – which he has said numbers over 700,000 soldiers – by calling up reservists who have voluntarily signed contracts with the Defense Ministry.
The amendment would allow reservists to be called up during peacetime, rather than only during martial law or when war has been declared. Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” rather than a war.
That could allow Putin to avoid another round of unpopular mobilization, something the authorities are anxious to avoid after a partial mobilization drive in September 2022 prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.
Reservists would get extra pay if summoned
It is also likely to be cheaper for the Russian state which is currently paying out significant sums to entice volunteers to sign contracts with the regular army to fight in Ukraine, a move which has stoked inflation at a time of tighter finances.
The reservists, who undergo annual military training and who are paid when absent from their usual civilian jobs, would nonetheless get paid extra if summoned under the new terms and conditions set out for them in the amendments, the RBC news outlet and state media, who obtained a copy of the proposed changes, reported.
RBC said the current draft amendments, backed by a government commission on Monday after being put forward by the Defense Ministry, stipulated that the reservists could not be deployed for more than two months at a time.
Alexei Zhuravlev, deputy chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defense committee, said the changes would allow the reservists, whom he and other military-focused lawmakers said represented a force of around two million soldiers, to be used in more situations than is now the case.
“They are professionals in their field, but they are currently in reserve,” Zhuravlev told RTVI news.
“Until now it has only been possible to use this potential during periods of martial law or mobilization. We are engaged in very real and large-scale combat operations (in Ukraine), but officially, war has not been declared,” he said.
A further amendment would authorize their deployment abroad.
Once the law is changed – seen as a formality in what is a tightly-controlled political system – Andrei Kartapolov, head of the parliament’s Defense Committee, said that Putin could choose to deploy the reservists in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions if he wanted to, for example.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn Editing by Sharon Singleton)