Russian nationals seeking asylum in Western countries to avoid being drafted into the military has reached a record high, according to the U.K. government, as Moscow and Kyiv dig deep to replenish their ranks more than two years into the Ukrainian war.
Russian citizens searching for refuge in Western countries to escape military service have hit "record levels," the British Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Deep into the third year of a full-scale war, both Moscow and Kyiv have sustained heavy casualties among their fatigued forces. Western experts say Russian tactics securing gains along the front line in eastern Ukraine have been paid for with sky-high casualty counts.
Earlier this month, Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported an "unprecedented" growth in cases brought against Russian citizens this year for refusing to serve in the military or for desertion.
In March, Russian courts handed down nearly 700 sentences for "absence without leave," according to the outlet.
The number of cases brought against draft dodgers "started to grow substantially" after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia's partial mobilization in fall 2022, Mediazona said.
In September 2022, the Kremlin called up military reservists to bolster Russia's fighting forces in Ukraine. By the end of October 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said tens of thousands of fighters of the 300,000 reservists called up had already been deployed to Ukraine.
The partial mobilization brought protests in Russia as thousands fled to neighboring countries to avoid the draft. Russia has also passed laws toughening the penalties for draft dodging.
In July 2023, Russia increased the conscription age from 27 to 30, months after Moscow passed a law to introduce digital conscription designed to crack down on draft dodging. This increased "the pool of available military conscripts by 2 million for years to come," the head of the U.S. military's European Command, General Christopher Cavoli, told U.S. lawmakers earlier this month.
"Many of the soldiers who have been tracked down and appear in military court are given suspended sentences, returned to their units and to the frontlines," the U.K. government said Wednesday. "Russian soldiers, including those forcibly recruited during the September 2022 partial mobilisation, are required to remain in military service indefinitely, with little prospect of release.
More than 315,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured in Ukraine, Cavoli said on April 10. "However, Russia is reconstituting that force far faster than our initial estimates suggested."
He added that Russia's army is now 15 percent larger than when Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine has struggled with maintaining its fighting force, balancing the deep unpopularity of widening conscription with the much smaller pool of fighters available in the country to battle Russia's far larger military. Kyiv has also contended with tens of thousands of men avoiding the draft.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has called an expanded draft "sensitive," signed a law in early April lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25. Zelensky had said in December 2023 that Kyiv needed up to 500,000 extra fighters.
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About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
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