The Russian Defense Minister today announced an increase in the number of military personnel to 1.5 million, the creation of an army unit on the border with Finland and groups in the annexed Ukrainian regions.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to increase the personnel of the armed forces to 1.5 million soldiers,” Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of his ministry, stating that “it is only possible to guarantee the military security of the state and protect new federative entities and critical facilities if the main structural components of the armed forces are strengthened”.
According to the official Russian agency TASS, the Russian armed forces currently have two million troops, of which 1,150,628 are military.
The number of military personnel increased after the entry into force of a decree by Vladimir Putin, on January 1, which forced 137,000 people to join the armed forces.
Shoigu stressed that between 2023 and 2026 “large-scale changes in the composition of the armed forces, [com] an increase in the number of military and a change in the military-administrative division of Russia”.
These changes imply the creation of two new military districts, in Moscow and Leningrad, and groups of armed forces in the territories of the “new constituent entities” of Russia, that is, in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Lugansk. . , annexed in September, the minister said.
Shoigu indicated that an army unit will also be formed in the Republic of Karelia, which borders Finland, three motorized rifle divisions as part of the ground forces and two air assault divisions in the airborne forces.
In addition, seven motorized marine brigades from the western, central and eastern military districts and the northern fleet will be reorganized, and the combat component of the navy, aerospace forces and strategic missile forces will be strengthened.
The minister also defended that all the measures must be combined in a comprehensive plan to increase the composition and endowment of the army and be synchronized with the delivery of weapons and military material and with the construction of infrastructures.
The increase in the number of soldiers should be achieved mainly by hiring people on a contract basis, Shoigu said.
In addition, the number of training camps in the military districts and in the four annexed Ukrainian regions should be increased to, among other things, develop more specialists, he said.
The spokesman for the Russian presidency (Kremlin), Dmitry Peskov, said, in turn, that the increase in the number of troops in the army is a consequence of the “proxy war” that the “West as a whole” is waging against Russia.
This “proxy war”, he added, includes “economic, financial and legal elements” and has the “indirect participation” of Western countries in the confrontation with Russia.
Source: TSF
