Russian Military Mobilization During the Ukraine War: Evolution, Methods, and Net Impact

Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine met with unexpectedly stiff resistance from Ukrainian armed forces, causing Moscow’s multi-axis offensive into Ukrainian territory to founder quickly. The conflict then shifted to southeastern Ukraine, where it devolved into a large-scale war of attrition. Russia’s military reversals in Ukraine resulted in massive losses of Russian combat personnel, which drove the Kremlin to pursue a wide range of mobilization activities to replenish Russian combat forces in Ukraine. These included recruiting additional contract soldiers, expanding private military contractors, forming regional volunteer battalions, deploying Chechen militias, forcibly mobilizing Ukrainian separatists in the Donbas region, and—most important—activating Russian reservists.

This paper examines Russia’s military mobilization measures during the ongoing war in Ukraine. To provide context, the first section of this paper examines the historical role played by mobilization in Russian military strategy, including during the Soviet period. It also evaluates Russian efforts to reform the mobilization process from the beginning of the New Look reforms through the eve of the Ukraine invasion. The following section assesses the many measures used by Russia to mobilize additional combat troops for the war in Ukraine, seeking to replace its growing battlefield losses and achieve some semblance of victory. The last section sets forth the study’s key findings and discusses the future direction of Russian military mobilization based on lessons learned during the war.