Russia is proposing to raise the maximum age of its military personnel to 70, according to British intelligence.
The Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update, released on Tuesday, revealed the Kremlin “is proposing draft legislation to raise the age of military contract personnel, including those that were recruited before June 2023, to age 65, and age 70 for officers”.
This would “substantially raise” the current age limit of 51 for non-officers and would likely extend the length of contracts, said the MoD.
It added that in 2021, before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the life expectancy for Russian males was 64.2 years.
This would mean raising the maximum age of its military would mean imposing on service personnel what is “in effect, a lifetime contract”, the MoD added.
“Although this measure will likely alleviate the need for additional mobilisation, increasing the number of military personnel aged over 51 is highly unlikely to increase Russia’ combat effectiveness, particularly in kinetic assaults,” said the MoD.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 13 February 2024.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 13, 2024
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/OvlDlvNrbQ #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Mr5Y0s8304
Russia has already raised the upper age limit for men to be called up for compulsory military service from 27 to 30, and has made it much harder for young men to avoid the draft by dodging recruiters handing out call-up papers.
The average daily number of Russian troops injured or dead rose by almost 300 per day over the course of 2023 compared to 2022, according to a Defence Intelligence update in December.
The UK understood at the time that Russia would have sustained more than half a million personnel killed and wounded in its invasion of Ukraine by 2025 if casualties continue at that rate.
Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will urge allies to increase defence production to help Ukraine's war with Russia, his office said on Tuesday ahead of a diplomatic tour to Bulgaria, Poland and Germany.Ahead of the two-year anniversary of Ukraine's conflict with Russia, Kyiv faces ammunition shortages and uncertainty over the future of US military aid even as Russian forces begin to gain the upper hand on the battlefield.
Lord Cameron will speak at the Munich Security Conference, which is attended by the world's defence and security elite and will take place between Friday and Sunday.
