The Kremlin said on Wednesday there was no “new wave” of men being drafted into the army, although some regional officials reported they were stepping up mobilization efforts this week.
“There is no new wave,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, telling reporters to check with individual governors to see what they meant.
The defense ministry said more than 200,000 were drafted in the first weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine.
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Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier suggested 300,000 men with prior military experience would be called up to bolster Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, although Putin’s decree did not reveal any numbers.
Officials in two different regions said this week that they had received new orders to mobilize troops, raising fears that a second wave of men could be called up to serve in the military.
The governor of Russia’s Rostov region said he had been given a “new mobilization mission”, while the deputy head of the Kursk region said they had been given a “second” mobilization target.
Tens of thousands of men seeking to avoid conscription have already fled abroad, and the public remains concerned that mobilization could expand.
