In an interview with the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, the head of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff, Colonel-General Yevgeny Burdinsky, said that about 120,000 conscripts are planned to be sent to the Armed Forces in autumn 2026. Dispatch to the troops will begin on October 10.
It is from October 10 that conscripts will begin leaving assembly points for their places of military service. However, exceptions are also provided for: in certain areas of the Far North and areas equated to them, dispatch will run from November 1 to December 31.
For residents of rural areas and those engaged in sowing and harvesting work, dispatch to the army starts on October 15.
According to Burdinsky, about 80 percent of citizens subject to dispatch to the army have already been conscripted. This figure was achieved thanks to year-round medical examination and psychological selection measures.
The general clarified: in total, under the implementation of the presidential decree, 261,000 people must be conscripted for military service and sent to the troops in 2026.
A conscripted citizen may not go to serve if, before the moment of dispatch, grounds have emerged for this, for example health problems or the birth of two or more children.
Burdinsky noted that thanks to the automation of registration and conscription processes, more than 350,000 Russians received a deferral or exemption from conscription without personally appearing at a military commissariat.
An important advantage of the system is the proactive granting of deferrals. Thus, information about students, fathers of two or more children, and IT specialists is updated automatically on the basis of data from government bodies and employers.
Burdinsky also stressed that conscripts, as before, will not serve in the zone of the SMO. Military units carrying out tasks there are staffed exclusively by contract servicemen.
Year-round conscription in 2026 is taking place for the first time, while the dispatch of those liable for military service to their place of service is carried out twice a year - from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31.