Ukraine on Wednesday started conscripting reservists aged 18-60 years amid the very real possibility of a Russian invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the conscription of reservists via a presidential decree on Tuesday, but ruled out a general mobilisation despite Moscow moving troops to eastern Ukraine.

“There is no need for general mobilization today. We need to promptly replenish the Ukrainian army and other military formations. As the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, I issued a decree on the conscription of reservists during a special period,” Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.

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The maximum service period for the conscripted reservists is one year, reported Reuters.

The news of the conscription comes a couple of days after the situation in Ukraine quickly deteriorated following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Moscow would officially recognise pro-Russia rebel held regions – the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic – as sovereign states independent of Ukraine.

The announcement effectively brought an end to an eight-year-old peace agreement, the Minsk Protocol, drawn up by Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2014 following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

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Since then, the Ukraine military has accused the Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine of aggression. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said that one solider had been killed while six had been wounded over the past 24 hours due to shelling by pro-Russia rebels using heavy artillery, mortars, and Grad rockets.

The US and its allies, meanwhile, have stepped up pressure on Moscow through the imposition of economic sanctions and have warned that more strict sanctions will follow if Russia invades Ukraine.

Russia has reportedly amassed nearly 150,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders and coupled with Putin’s recognition of the self-declared rebel republics, the West fears that an invasion is imminent.