Vladimir Putin has secretly approved a law that could send a further one million men to fight in Ukraine, according to information leaked from the Kremlin.

The target, revealed by a Kremlin source to a Russian newspaper, is more than triple the 300,000 number that had previously been given under Putin's "partial mobilisation" plan.

The new figure is likely to exacerbate fears of conscription among ordinary Russians - a fear that has already sparked mass protests and queues to leave the country since the plan was announced on Wednesday.

It comes as some protesters detained at the anti-war rallies were threatened with deployment to the frontlines and reports that men with no military experience were being called up, despite the Kremlin's assurances that wouldn't happen.

 Stories emerged from one remote region of university students being pulled straight out of class.According to Novaya Gazeta, an exiled independent newspaper, citing an anonymous Kremlin source, the redacted Section 7 of Putin's decree states that up to one million men could be mobilised.

The unnamed Kremlin official said the number had been revised several times and that the Russian military insisted on it being classified.When asked about the redacted figure, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that it contains the mobilisation target but said the one million figure was "a lie".

 He cited Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's statement on Wednesday that Moscow was only going to call up 300,000 people.

It comes as some of the protesters detained in Moscow at Wednesday’s anti-war rallies following Vladimir Putin's declaration of a partial mobilisation have been told to show up at their local army draft offices as punishment. 

Over 1,300 people were taken away by police at nationwide protests in over 30 cities on Wednesday when police beat up and brutally detained men and women who took to the streets after the Kremlin’s decree called for some men with military training to help shore up his invasion of Ukraine.

There were also reports that administration and conscription buildings were targeted by arsonists in several cities overnight. 

At least 15 people in Moscow and one person in Voronezh were handed summons obliging them to visit the local draft office where they could formally be called up, the police monitoring group OVD Info said.  

 Kirill, a 24-year-old barista from Moscow, was among those served with summons at a police station at midnight shortly after he was detained. 

“There was a woman upstairs who was filling in the forms, and they were hurrying me up: I didn’t know the law so I just signed it,” Kirill told The Telegraph. 

“That was really intimidating.”

Kirill was supposed to show up at the recruitment office at 10 a.m. but he did not, hoping that the enlistment office would not track him down as the police only took his old address.

“I wanted to get out of the country for a while but I just don’t have the money.