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Putin Launches 2026 Stage of Covert Mobilization to Replace Russia’s Mounting War Casualties
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The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree calling up reservists for 2026 military training assemblies that military analysts and the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) describe as a new stage of covert mobilization to replenish forces fighting in Ukraine, according to The Moscow Times on December 10.
The decree, dated December 8 and published on Russia’s official legal information portal, orders citizens in the reserve to be called up for training with the Armed Forces, the National Guard, emergency military units of the Emergencies Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and state protection agencies across the country.
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However, two sections of the decree are classified “for official use only,” concealing the number of people to be called up and the duration of training.
Under Russian law, such training assemblies for reservists may not exceed two consecutive months in duration.
The assemblies scheduled for 2026, which will be held in winter, will allow the Kremlin to “secretly mobilize” members of the “strategic inactive reserve” at a time when Russia’s pool of volunteers and contract soldiers is close to exhaustion.
The outlet assessed that the new decree complements a law enabling the call-up of reservists to guard “strategic facilities” and earlier legislation introducing year-round conscription with electronic draft notices, where failure to report can result in travel bans and restrictions on banking operations.
In addition, ISW stated that the Kremlin is “very likely” preparing to offset the near exhaustion of voluntary recruitment by mobilizing elements of Russia’s strategic reserve while avoiding a single large-scale mobilization and instead drawing in reservists on a rolling basis.
The Moscow Times, citing ISW’s reading of Russian casualty estimates, reported that Russia’s current recruitment system for “volunteers” provides roughly 30,000 troops per month, a figure the institute said is broadly comparable to monthly losses killed and wounded in Ukraine.
Earlier, it was reported that a draft law in Russia would introduce “special assemblies” as a new type of military gathering, allowing the Kremlin to call up reservists for up to two months of paid “peacetime service” and broadening their use outside formal wartime mobilization.
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