KEY POINTS
- The head of the human rights organization Agora reported on Russia sending out the notices
- Several people who received call-up notices were offered to fight in the war in Ukraine
- The Kremlin, however, denied plans of holding a second wave of mobilization
The Russian military has begun sending out call-up notices to residents living across more than a dozen Russian regions, the head of the international human rights organization Agora said Wednesday.
Enlistment offices in 35 Russian regions have been extensively sending out draft notices to residents. The regions include Belgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Leningrad and the Republic of Tartasan, Agora head Pavel Chikov revealed in a Telegram post.
“The ones that raise the most questions are the call-up notices for military training, which can only be held after a presidential decree. There has been no such decree – at least none that has been published,” Chikov wrote in the post, as translated by Ukrainska Pravda.
It is unclear where Chikov obtained his information. However, his reporting on the call-up notices was confirmed by Novaya Gazeta Europe, which added that its reporter had also received a notice demanding that he go to the enlistment office “to clarify military registration documents.”
The independent Vertska news website also confirmed the reporting of Russia sending out call-up notices, but added that some people are also being offered to fight in Ukraine, citing military sources from the Voronezh region and the Siberian Federal District.
In response, the Kremlin denied that Russia is considering holding a second wave of mobilization for the war in Ukraine and said it is only asking reservists to “clarify their personal data.”
“It is common practice. All data needs to be clarified and updated,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to The Moscow Times.
Rumors of a possible second wave of mobilization in Russia have been spreading in the media since late 2022 as Moscow continues to suffer massive losses in the war in Ukraine. Several reports also say that Russia is preparing to launch a new offensive.
As of Wednesday, a total of 161,520 Russian military personnel were killed in the war in Ukraine, according to estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The figure included 980 soldiers who were killed in combat over the past day.
