Kremlin reportedly plans involuntary reserve call-up as Russia's battlefield losses mount

Russia appears to be having difficulty replenishing its losses in Ukraine through the existing mechanisms of troop formation. However, any sort of mobilisation will cause massive discontent among the population.

Russia is seeking to use limited military conscription to make up for its losses in Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine and maintain the current pace of offensive operations.According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, the Kremlin might be setting up "information conditions" already.The ISW expects the Kremlin to restart limited, rolling involuntary reserve call-ups, as Russia appears to be having difficulty replenishing losses in Ukraine through existing force-generation mechanisms.The authorities are also reportedly preparing Russian society for these measures.On Wednesday, the Russian State Duma passed, in the first reading, a bill that would strengthen preventive measures against the “distortion of historical truth” and “evasion of the duty to defend the Fatherland.”The ISW experts believe this bill is intended to provide the Kremlin with a legal justification to prosecute citizens who criticise involuntary reserve call-ups.The think tank notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely seeking to normalise limited, rolling call-ups in an effort to sustain the size of the Russian force grouping in Ukraine, rather than conduct another partial call-up as in September 2022 or declare general mobilizationFearing a social explosion, Russian authorities are reluctant to announce a general conscription or even a new partial mobilisation, as they did in September 2022.At the same time, the ISW notes that Putin must balance the labour needs of the Russian economy. Russian officials say they need to find at least 2.4 million additional workers by 2030.Russian officials have been setting the information landscape for an involuntary reserve call-up since at least October 2025.Back then the Russian government approved a draft law that would allow reservists from the active reserve to be sent outside Russia to perform special tasks in armed conflicts and what Moscow calls "anti-terrorist operations".One month later in November 2025, Putin signed a decree allowing the Russian military to conduct conscription year-round, rather than only twice a year.In December 2025, the Russian president signed another decree authorising the conscription of an unspecified number of Russian reservists who will undergo mandatory "military training camps" in 2026 in the Russian Armed Forces, the National Guard (Rosgvardia), the Federal Security Service (FSB), military rescue units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and other state security agencies.The ISW estimates that the decree is likely to allow the Kremlin to secretly conscript members of its strategic inactive reserve.Telegram to goAgainst this background, Moscow is tightening up its control over the information space.The ISW stated that the Kremlin is looking for new reasons to restrict Telegram messenger in order to suppress and conceal criticism of the Russian government and Moscow's waging war against Ukraine.At the same time, the authorities have acknowledged that Russian troops have been using Telegram extensively and promised not to block the messenger in the war zone.This way Moscow is hoping to appease milbloggers and Russian army representatives, who have stepped in to defend Telegram.The Kremlin's efforts to prepare Russian society for further involuntary reserve call-ups show that Putin, four years after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is facing a difficult choice, as the ISWhas previously predicted.This is likely why the Kremlin is pushing for Ukraine to capitulate to Russia’s long-held demands in ongoing peace negotiations imminently to secure Moscow's war aims without having to make uncomfortable sacrifices to do so.On Thursday, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and close associate of Putin, said that "rumours of a personnel crisis are exaggerated" and that Russia's military-industrial complex is "the most powerful in the world".He said demobilised war veterans would be sent to a special "school of masters" to learn working skills.But even data from Russian statistics and national research institutes do not support the Kremlin officials' claims of a labour shortage, which has become increasingly noticeable since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Russia sustained 1.2 million casualties almost four years into its all-out war in Ukraine, suffering more losses than any major power in any war since World War II.