The two chambers of the Russian parliament have approved a bill on the creation of military units composed of reservists employed by contract and exclusively dedicated to the defense of Russia’s critical infrastructures, threatened by Ukrainian drone attacks. The project only needs the promulgation of President Vladimir Putin to come into effect, but several Russian regions have already started creating such units, according to Agerpres.
The current legislation allows the use of reservist units by contract only during mobilization periods or in times of war. The bill adopted by the Russian parliament includes an amendment to the defense law, under which reservists who sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense can be mobilized to fulfill critical infrastructure defense missions.
“This is not about mobilization,” stressed the deputy head of the Organization and Mobilization Department within the Russian army’s General Staff, Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlianski. ‘The bill, drafted at the initiative of the Ministry of Defense, does not concern all citizens and does not provide for their recruitment for military service, nor their deployment in the special military operation zone (on the Ukrainian front, ed) or outside the country’s territory,’ the Russian military explained.
President Putin ordered in September 2022 the mobilization of about 300,000 reservists for the war in Ukraine, but since then he has not decreed any other mobilization, as that caused the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russians who left their country for fear that they could be sent to the front. Putin has promised that he will not order any more mobilizations, arguing that the number of those who volunteer to join the army ranks would be sufficient.
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