According to the agency, the Russian authorities are working on amending the regulations regarding civilian reservists who have signed agreements to undergo regular defense training in peacetime.
The bill submitted to the State Duma on Thursday will enable them to be summoned as part of “special missions” under a presidential decree and used to defend “critically important” facilities, including oil refineries and other energy facilities, transport links and industrial enterprises, Bloomberg reports.
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The Ministry of Defense is trying to alleviate public anxiety related to this decision. Reservists will not be subject to “conscription into military service, being sent to a special military operation zone or traveling outside the country,” Vladimir Tsymlansky, deputy head of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of Russia, said on television.
Data on the number of reservists who may be affected by this decision is not available. Alexei Zhuravlyov from the defense committee in the Russian Duma told the media that the number may reach 2 million.
Russia's problem with human resources
Bloomberg emphasized that such a step would potentially allow the Russian army to release some of its soldiers from these duties and send them to Ukraine. Thus, Putin will be able to send larger forces to the front without announcing conscription. According to Bloomberg, this shows that the Russian army, which suffered huge losses during the invasion of Ukraine, is struggling with pressure on human resources.
Since the beginning of August, Ukraine, which has intensified attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, has carried out at least 30 strikes on refineries, as well as on factories related to defense production. In this way, Kyiv is trying to weaken the Kremlin's war machine.
