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More and more Russians are dying in the Ukraine war. Putin therefore wants to prevent conscripts from fleeing Russia. A software is supposed to help.
Moscow – Western estimates of Russian losses in Ukraine War are becoming increasingly similar. Their tenor: At least 100,000 Russian military personnel are said to have already died while Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against international law in Ukraine. The recent compilation of various data sets by the British Economist suggests that between February 2022 and mid-June 2024 even 462,000 to 728,000 Russian soldiers were incapacitatedbecause they died or were seriously injured.
The losses are horrendous, as soldiers from Russia also describe, and according to the independent Russian media Media Zone Since Putin’s invasion, over 9,000 people have been charged with leaving their unit without permission. That is why the Kremlin needs new recruits. To ensure that they do not run away before they can be trained, the Russian leadership is now using software for “electronic data exchange” between the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service (FSB). This was reported by the independent Russian news portal Medusa.
New Russian software to combat conscript flight in the face of losses
In September 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered the first and so far only partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists in the Ukraine war. This provoked an exodus of young Russians, especially from the cities, which cost Russian society important skilled workers. In the same month, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazetathat 261,000 Russians have already left the country.
Since then, Putin and his aides have been constantly stressing that no further mobilization will be necessary, as enough people are joining the army as temporary soldiers or volunteers. According to Sergei Shoigu, then Russian Defense Minister, by October 2023 alone, 335,000 people had signed up in this way. Recently, the New York Times Citing US government officials, Russia recruits 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers every month. In addition, conscripts are also called up twice a year – usually from April 1 and again from October 1.
The FSB knows: Soon conscripts will no longer be able to leave the country
According to the Kremlin, they will not be deployed in Ukraine or in any “special operations.” However, since Russia considers the annexed Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia to be its own territory, conscripts could still be deployed there. They also represent a pool from which future professional soldiers can be recruited after their compulsory year. They are therefore an important resource for the Russian military machine.
That is why the Kremlin now wants to use digital tools to more successfully prevent conscripts who have received their call-up order from leaving the country. Since January 1, 2024, a new law has been in force in Russia that raises the maximum age for conscription from 27 to 30. It also prohibits all men from leaving the country as soon as they have received a call-up order. While this order previously had to be received by post or handed over by the employer, it can also be delivered online via the government portal Gosuslugi since April 2023.
So far, the problem seems to have been that the FSB, the domestic intelligence service responsible for border protection, was not always informed about who had received a call-up order and was therefore not allowed to leave the country. The “Voskhod” research institute, which is subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, is now developing a program to remedy the situation. The aim is to transfer a regularly updated list of the relevant names from the Defense Ministry’s call-up register to the Federal Data Processing Center of the FSB Border Service.
Similar measures: Ukraine also suffers from a shortage of soldiers
Meanwhile, Ukraine is struggling with similar problems. Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, all men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been banned from leaving their country, even if they have not yet been called up for military service. This makes it easier in the attacked state than it was previously in Russia to control who is allowed to leave the country. That Ukraine still has problems with thisIt is no secret that it is difficult to recruit enough soldiers: the General Staff of its armed forces has called for the mobilization of 500,000 additional soldiers by the end of 2023.
Last April, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new recruitment law that lowers the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25 and requires everyone aged 18 to 60 to register in the military register. As in Russia, it removes the requirement to physically deliver the conscription notice and also provides for new sanctions for conscientious objectors: they can lose their driving license, their bank accounts can be frozen and their property can be confiscated.
In the same month, the Foreign Ministry suspended consular services such as issuing new passports for Ukrainians who are of military age but live abroad. The government in Kiev said that this was to take fairness in society into account. Anyone who shows their state “that they do not care about their survival” does not deserve state services, said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
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