SpaceWar.com reports: “President Emmanuel Macron is set this week to announce that France is restoring military service on a voluntary basis in the face of the growing threat posed by Russia, just under three decades after conscription was abolished in the country.

The head of state is due to lay out the change on a visit to an infantry brigade in southeastern France on Thursday, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision who spoke to AFP.

The announcement will come more than three-and-a-half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Macron and other French officials warning that Moscow risks not stopping at Ukraine’s borders.

France’s top general, armed forces chief of staff Fabien Mandon, sparked uproar at home last week by warning that France must be ready ‘to lose its children’, adding that Russia is ‘preparing for a confrontation by 2030 with our countries’.

Macron told the RTL broadcaster he would be announcing a ‘transformation of national service into a new form’ on Thursday, but did not provide further details.

A source with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the plan is for 2,000 to 3,000 people to be trained up in the first year, aiming to increase those signing up over time to 50,000 per year…”