Vladimir Putin has conscripted 160,000 new troops into the Russian army, the biggest military call-up in more than a decade, as his forces unleashed a new wave of drone strikes in Ukraine.
The latest spring draft, the largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, came as the United States continued to voice anger over the stalemate in negotiations for a ceasefire.
Officials in Donald Trump’s administration said the likelihood of Moscow and Kyiv reaching a peace accord within the next few months has plummeted.
Trump has also accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of “trying to back out” of his proposed minerals deal as payback for US military aid.
While actively resisting Washington’s attempts to strike an agreement, Putin has called up 160,000 Russian men aged 18 to 30, his nation’s biggest wave of conscripts since 2011.
As well as increasing the maximum age of conscription from 27 to 30, the Kremlin has also called up large numbers of men as contract soldiers and recruited thousands of servicemen from North Korea.
Last year, Putin signed a decree ordering the overall size of the armed forces to be increased to 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million — a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years — amid the "ongoing expansion of NATO" to include Sweden and Finland.
Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, Deputy Chief of Russia’s Directorate of the General Staff, claimed the new recruits would not be sent to fight in Ukraine for what Russia calls its "special military operation".
But last year the BBC reported that mobilised soldiers — citizens called up to fight — account for 13% of all of the Russian soldiers killed in the Ukrainian battlefield.
The current draft, which takes place between April and July, was met with disdain from senior White House and State Department figures, who acknowledged that Putin is actively resisting attempts to strike a peace deal.
US officials have also discussed what, if any, economic or diplomatic sanctions could push Russia closer to a deal, sources told Reuters.
Ahead of talks in Brussels between NATO foreign ministers this week, Germany's Annalena Baerbock warned that Trump "should not engage with Putin's stalling tactics".
Despite Trump’s efforts to get Russia back on the negotiating table, Russia is continuing to wage its brutal and unprovoked offensive in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Russian forces attacked a power facility in the southern city of Kherson on Tuesday which left 45,000 people without electricity.
And regional officials said at least one person was killed and several injured, including an infant and a 7-year-old boy in Kharkiv, in overnight drone attacks.
Meanwhile, Russian forces on Tuesday took control of the village of Rozlyv in Donetsk, the focal point of their steady westward advance.
Figures from Ukraine’s defence ministry showed the number of clashes in Ukraine rose from 3,274 in February to 4,270 in March, bringing the total for 2025 to 12,631 so far.
