Russia will keep mandatory military service at 18 after lawmakers rejected General Andriy Kartapalov’s proposal to raise the minimum age for conscription, instead raising the upper age, Reuters reported on Friday.

All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are currently required to complete compulsory military service or undergo equivalent training while pursuing higher education.

Kartapalov, a retired general who now heads the defense committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, introduced a bill in March that would raise the minimum age of conscription to 21 and the maximum age of conscription to 30. years

But Kartapalov himself said on Friday that it was decided to abandon one of the two proposed measures.

“It was decided to leave the lower limit at the level of 18 years, because it is at this age that many boys want to go to serve,” he said, as quoted by the TASS agency.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive topic in Russia, where many young people go to great lengths to avoid receiving conscription documents during the two conscription periods that occur each year, in the spring and fall.

How Russia is steadily increasing the number of men it can conscript into the army

Their concern only grew after new recruits were sent to fight in Ukraine, despite assurances from many Russian officials, including Kartapalov, that this would not happen.

Russian law prohibits conscripts from being sent to a conflict zone, but this provision is not always followed after President Vladimir Putin ordered a “partial” mobilization last September.

The chaotic manner in which the mobilization process took place has sparked increasingly rare public protests in the country under Vladimir Putin and caused a real exodus of young men from Russia.

In addition, last year Russia announced a plan to increase the number of professional military and military personnel by more than 30 percent to 1.5 million troops.

In April, Russia passed a law allowing registration documents to be filed electronically, making it even more difficult to avoid military service.

Most recently, the Russian parliament this Tuesday increased by 5 years the minimum age at which men who have completed military service can be called up for military service. The new age of conscription of Russian men for war is 55 years for lower ranks and 70 years for senior officers.

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