Kremlin says Putin 'in principle' agreed to raise conscription age

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed "in principle" to the plan to raise conscription age, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday.

Last December, the ministry had proposed to raise the lower age range for military service from the current 18 years to 21 years, and the upper limit from 27 years to 30 years.

Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu had also outlined plans to increase the total number of combat personnel to 1.5 million from 1.15 million.

Peskov said new appointments in the army does not mean change of Russian aims in Ukraine, adding that the declared goals – denazification, demilitarization, protection of the Russian population – remain in force.

He said the recent reshuffle in the army's top command was due to the change of scale of the "special military operation," which began in February 2022.

Shoygu on Wednesday named chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov as "the commander of the joint forces" and some other high-rank military chiefs as his deputies.

Peskov praised "the work" done in the city of Soledar, meaning claims of the mercenary group Wagner about taking the settlement under control.

"But there is still a lot of work ahead. It's not the time to stop, it's not the time to rub your hands, the main work is still ahead," he stressed.

Peskov called "alarming" the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been under Russia's control since last March. He added that a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi was not on Putin's schedule.

The spokesman said the UK did not request Russia about its missing citizens, allegedly disappeared in Donbas, but if such a request comes, it will be properly dealt with.