Zelensky warns of Russia's plan to mobilise 300,000 more troops

- Zelensky also announced that Russia is preparing an additional mobilisation of 300,000 soldiers, scheduled for June 1, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

Zelensky shared this information during a joint press conference with the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, who was visiting Kyiv.

On March 31, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin endorsed a decree for spring conscription into military service in the Russian Federation. "From April 1 to July 15, 150,000 individuals aged between 18 and 30 years will be called up for military service in the Russian Federation," the document states.

The decree also mandates the discharge from military service of soldiers, sailors, sergeants, and warrant officers whose term of military service as conscripts has concluded.

However, in early March, Putin's administration confirmed that the mobilised Russian conscripts would not be permitted to return home until the conflict with Ukraine concluded. This was disclosed in a letter from the Kremlin in response to an enquiry by Boris Vishnevsky, deputy chairman of the liberal party Yabloko and a councillor of Petersburg.

On March 22, the Russian independent service Vyorstka reported that the Russian Ministry of Defence is planning mass conscription into the army and is preparing for a secret mobilisation to encircle and capture Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed a law reducing the conscription age from 27 to 25 years - the document had been awaiting his signature for 10 months. He also signed a law requiring men to report again before a medical board and undergo examinations within 9 months.