Russia's planning a new wave of mobilization that may target students

Russian authorities may be planning a new wave of mobilization that will specifically target the country’s full-time students according to leaked documents shared by Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence and reported on by Insider's Chris Panella.

"Russia is preparing to draft college students to the front lines in its war in Ukraine," wrote Panella, who was citing a statement released by Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence on Telegram which read: "The Russian Federation is preparing for a mass mobilization of full-time students.”

“Measures are being taken in Russia to ensure the next wave of mobilization,” the Telegram post added. “Currently, they are actively building up capabilities to ensure the mass mobilization of students from higher education institutions,” the statement added. 

Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate also noted that Russia was setting up “notification stations” to help the country's military enlistment centers deliver recruitment notices to those selected.

Russia’s new notification centers will be tasked with providing assistance to the country’s "military commissars" as they go about "serving summonses to full-time students," according to the Telegram post. 

Authorities at several Russian universities were also issued orders from the government, requiring them to allocate a certain number of their students and employees to staff Russia’s notification stations.

“Citizens who are not officially subject to mobilization are planned to be involved in this work,” the Telegram post stated, pointing out that this was being done “without the consent... of students and employees."

Officials involved in the "higher management educational institutions" in Russia have been tasked with setting up and managing the country’s new mobilization districts, which may indicate a much larger recruitment effort is going to take place. 

Russian officials have allegedly planned this latest round of recruitment as a way to skirt the country’s strict draft laws and “involve citizens who are not officially subject to mobilization,” wrote journalists from Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainian intelligence published three supporting documents from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation which ordered Tomsk State Pedagogical University to use its staff and students to "organize work to ensure the fulfillment of tasks of notifying citizens about conscription for military service on mobilization assigned to the university," which may indicate that students will be tasked with delivering mobilization notices to their peers.

Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence revealed what it believes to be Russia’s plan, which they say will include the mobilization of the country's full-time students since  Putin's partial mobilization was never legally ended. However, we must insist that this is merely the Ukrainian version of the story and the truth on the matter has yet to be seen.

“Russia needs no further legal basis for conducting a new round of mobilization, since the ‘partial mobilization’ announced in September 2022 was never officially completed,” Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence wrote in their Telegram post. 

“Mobilization will likely be conducted before April 1st, which marks the start of springtime term-service conscription. If necessary, the spring conscription can be postponed,” Ukraine's Main Directorate of intelligence added. 

Vladimir Putin said in October 2022 that Russia had completed its partial mobilization and announced an end to the program, though the legalities were never properly finalized and the order is still in "full force" according to Politico.

"All activities related to the conscription ... of citizens in the reserve have been stopped," Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement following Putin’s announcement.

Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 Russian reservists on September 21st following a number of setbacks on the battlefield that saw Ukraine capture the initiative in the war according to CBS News. 

Earlier this month, The Institute for the Study of War claimed Putin was pursuing an ongoing silent mobilization strategy due to concerns "over the extreme unpopularity of the first wave of mobilization,” so the recruiting of students to manage notification centers in Russia may indicate a turn away from previous policy.