New Mobilization May Begin in Russia: WSJ Reveals Exclusive Details

After the September "elections" in the State Duma, the Kremlin may initiate a new wave of mobilization to send thousands of new soldiers to the front in Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources in the U.S. administration. These sources indicate that Russian authorities are considering such a scenario as the flow of contract servicemen has decreased, hindering President Vladimir Putin's plans to capture the entire Donbas region.

WSJ emphasizes that, unlike the first wave, which mobilized men with military experience and reservists, the new mobilization may encompass Russians with minimal preparedness or who are not interested in fighting at all.

The likelihood of a new phase of mobilization in the Russian Armed Forces is also supported by Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, who pointed out that in July, the pace of advancement of Russian troops was only 37.85 square kilometers. According to him, if Putin decides not to abandon his demands for the complete occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, "he may have no choice but to declare mobilization."

As noted by WSJ, the political risks of such a decision could outweigh the military benefits expected on the battlefield, as some Russians are already expressing a willingness to resist in the event of mobilization. "As soon as they give me a weapon, I will shoot the ones who draft me," stated Dmitry Rogin, a 53-year-old reserve officer.

Alongside news of a new wave of mobilization, mass arrests of men of conscription age have begun in Russian regions. For example, in the Penza region, the practice of mandatorily sending local residents to the military has recently resumed. The recruitment and arrests are carried out by law enforcement and plainclothes individuals with the support of local authorities. Similar incidents have also been reported in Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk, and Rostov regions.

Moreover, there has recently been a sharp increase in the number of job vacancies published by Russian companies and government agencies for specialists in military registration and mobilization preparedness. Currently, around 2,500 such job postings are available on the HeadHunter platform, nearly 1,300 of which appeared in the past week.

Last week, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, announced that authorities had managed to recruit about 200,000 people for contract service in the first half of 2026. For comparison, during the same period last year, over 210,000 people were recruited for the war, according to Medvedev's figures.

According to assessments by Western intelligence services, by mid-2026, total losses of the Russian army (both dead and wounded) will have reached 1.4 million people, and the pace of contract recruitment no longer compensates for the losses incurred.