Vladimir Putin is considering raising the fighting age to a maximum of 70-years old to “alleviate the need for additional mobilisation” as the elections are nearing.
British military intelligence has said that if the legislation is approved this will help to bolster Russia’s troops in Ukraine which would lead to an enormous number of soldiers being sent to the frontlines.
In December Putin said at his annual conference that there is around 617,000 troops fighting in various frontline battles.
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The US has said in their assessment that since the war started on 24 February 2022 some 315,000 troops have been sent to their death, Russia claims they have only lost 5,937 soldiers.
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Tuesday, “Russia is proposing a draft legislation to raise the age of military contract personnel, including those that were recruited before June 2023, to age 65 and age 70 for officers.
“This would substantially raise the current age limit of 51 for non-officers and would likely extend the contract length.”
Ukraine has around 7800,000 soldiers, whilst Putin has about 1.3 million and could easily send “three times” more troops in the battlefields.
The MoD’s statement added, “The pre-war 2021 life expectancy for Russian males was 64.2 years old (according to the World Data Site).
“Therefore, this measure confers on these service personnel, in effect, a lifetime contact.”
The US said in their intelligence assessment, “The scale of losses has forced Russia to take extraordinary measures to sustain its ability to fight.
“Russia declared a partial mobilisation of 300,000 personnel in late 2022 and has relaxed standards to allow recruitment of convicts and older civilians.”
