Russia Proposes Military Age Limit that Surpasses Country’s Life Expectancy

Russia has proposed a new age limit for military service that extends beyond the nation’s average life expectancy for men.

The Russian military has suffered massive casualties amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, while also dealing with personnel issues that have included soldiers abandoning their posts and potential recruits fleeing Russia to avoid service. Moscow lawmakers have attempted to bolster the military by raising the age limit for service on more than one occasion.

The new proposed legislation would raise the age limit for all officers to 70 and take the maximum age for contract personnel to 65—far older than the current limit of 51, according to an intelligence update shared to X, formerly Twitter, by the U.K. Ministry of Defense on Tuesday. Both of the new age limits exceed the average life expectancy for Russian men of 64.2 years, according to WorldData.Info.

The British Defense Ministry argued that the new limits could prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from ordering additional mobilizations but would effectively lead to a lifetime of service for Russian servicemen, with the older recruits also likely doing little to improve Moscow’s military performance in Ukraine.

“This measure confers on these service personnel, in effect, a lifetime contract,” the ministry’s update states. “Although this measure will likely alleviate the need for additional mobilisation, increasing the number of military personnel aged over 51 is highly unlikely to increase Russia’s combat effectiveness, particularly in kinetic assaults”

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email on Tuesday night.

Since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the Russian military has lost an estimated 397,080 troops, including deaths and service-ending injuries, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

While the Ukrainian claim has not been independently verified by Newsweek and the true number of Russian war casualties remains unclear, other sources also claim that Moscow has suffered hundreds of thousands of troop losses during the war. U.S. intelligence estimated in December that at least 315,000 Russian soldiers had been lost, according to Reuters.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed during an interview with German television station ARD that his military had an unexpected military personnel advantage over Russia, with at least 880,000 active Ukrainian personnel defending against the 617,000 Russian troops Putin has said are fighting in Ukraine.

Zelensky also argued that the Russian president was treating his troops like expendable “pieces of meat,” claiming that Russian military leadership does not care how many troops die during the war.

“The first year of the war, I don’t think Russia used mathematics at all,” Zelensky said. “It just threw away its people. They treat them like pieces of meat, and I’m not sure that fact bothers [their leadership]. One million, two million, three million… they don’t care how many are going to die.”