R ussian President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18 to 30, for military service, the nation's biggest number of conscripts since 2011.
The announcement comes in the wake of Putin's declaration that Russia should expand the size of its armed forces to nearly 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million, theBBC reports.
The Kremlin says the new wave of conscripts will serve for one year in the military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chats with conscripts at a military training centre near Moscow in 2022. (AP)
Russian authorities say that the troops deployed to Ukraine only include volunteers who signed contracts with the military and conscripts aren't sent to the frontline.
Some draftees, however, fought and were taken prisoners when the Ukrainian military launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk region last August.
The new draft, which takes place between April and July, comes as the US attempts to broker a ceasefire in the conflict.
A Kremlin spokesperson said Russia views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as "a drawn-out process" after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries' leaders as he tries to bring about a truce.
"We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing," Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
In this photo taken from video on Sunday, March 30, 2025, a Russian Army 2S5 howitzer fires towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine. (Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP) (AP)
"There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce. This is a drawn-out process because of the difficulty of its substance," the Kremlin spokesman said when asked about Trump's anger at Putin's comments dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's legitimacy to negotiate a deal.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. The feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea, used by both countries to transport shipments of grain and other cargo, was cast into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions.
Trump promised during last year's US election campaign that he would bring Europe's biggest conflict since World War II to a swift conclusion.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that there has been no reduction in Russia's attacks as it drives on with its invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, with Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and speak to journalists during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) (AP)
"The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldn't care less about diplomacy," Zelenskyy said in his daily address.
"And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes," he said.
He urged further international pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to negotiate, including new sanctions.
- With Associated Press