Russian lawmaker says draftees won’t be rotated out of Ukraine until war is done

Russian draftees won’t be rotated out of combat zones in Ukraine until the “special military operation” is complete, says State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrey Kartapolov. Soldiers forced into military service by President Putin’s partial mobilization order last year still have the right to brief rest and recuperation once every six months of service, Kartapolov told journalists on Friday.

Just a few days earlier, on September 9, however, Kartapolov said Russia’s booming recruitment of contract soldiers gives the military enough manpower to consider rotational deployments without even resuming mobilization. He stressed that the Defense Ministry was close to signing as many volunteers in 2023 as the 300,000 men the Armed Forces drafted last fall.

In mid-June, Vladimir Putin noted that Russian law provides no specific timeframe for the rotation of mobilized personnel. The military will determine when draftees can return as the situation demands, he said.

• Meduza’s sources in Moscow say the Kremlin’s domestic policy team has urged politicians and the state media to ignore rumors about a second mobilization wave, warning that such talk alarms the public.