Army ranks grow amid special operation in UkraineRussian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the establishment of the regular strength of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", which comes into force on January 1, 2023.
The document was published on the official portal of legal information on the day of signing, August 25. According to Decree No. 575, the troops will number 2,039,758 people, including 1,150,628 soldiers and officers. This is higher than today's figure by 137 thousand people. According to the previous similar decree, since January 2018, the total number of the armed forces (AF) has been set at 1,902,758 people, including 1,013,628 military personnel. The decree is linked to the draft plan of activity of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025, which provides for an increase in the number of contract employees by the end of 2025 to 475.6 thousand people. The army will continue to be formed from Russian citizens – both those who have signed contracts with the military department, and on the basis of conscription. The number of contract soldiers in the armed Forces for the first time in the history of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation exceeded the number of conscripts at the end of 2015: then the ratio was 352 thousand against 297 thousand people. There were about 270 thousand officers, midshipmen and ensigns in the troops.
The officer corps was estimated at about 200 thousand – this figure in April 2015 was cited by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Nikolai Pankov.
Despite the upcoming increase, the size of the Russian army is significantly inferior to the corresponding indicators of the Soviet period. So, at the time of the collapse of the USSR, there were about 3.8 million military personnel in the army (excluding civilian personnel). After the partition of the Soviet Union, according to various estimates, from 2.5 million to 2.8 million people continued to perform military service on the territory of Russia.
During the years of Boris Yeltsin's rule, the number of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation fell to a record low of 1 million. The first step to increase this figure was made in 2005, when the increase was 13%. The number of soldiers and officers in January of the following year amounted to 1 million 134.8 thousand, and the total number of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (including civilian personnel) – just over 2 million.
The current increase in numbers is taking place against the background of a special military operation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian army, which opposes the Russian troops and the Donbass militia, has a strength of about a million people. This figure was announced by President Vladimir Zelensky. Independent experts believe that it is greatly, twice, overestimated due to the difficulties with the practical involvement of Ukrainian citizens in military service - there are many evaders.
At the same time, they are talking not only about the AFU, but also about other power structures, including territorial defense formations, nationalist battalions and armed detachments in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Meanwhile, judging by the data coming from Ukraine, after the liberation of the Severodonetsk–Lisichansk agglomeration, the front line in the area of the special operation remained more or less stable throughout August. Both sides are striving to form reserves for a subsequent offensive. However, shelling and artillery duels along the entire front line not only do not stop, but are going on with high intensity.
In the last week of August, there were reports of repeated shelling by Ukrainian artillery of a nuclear power plant in the town of Energodar, controlled by Russian troops.
There is an intensification of hostilities with attacks and counterattacks of the opposing forces in the Zaporozhye, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
In the last week of August, there were reports of repeated shelling by Ukrainian artillery of a nuclear power plant in the town of Energodar, controlled by Russian troops. In the area of the border of the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, Russian paratroopers occupied Blagodatnoye and repulsed the counterattacks of the Ukrainian military.
According to the information given at the briefing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, when the APU attempted to attack, they were defeated in Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog and other directions. In the last days of August, Ukrainian troops lost four combat aircraft in Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog and other directions: two Su-25, one Su-24 and one MiG-29. Three Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were shot down in the air. Russian troops destroyed 63 Ukrainian tanks, 59 infantry fighting vehicles, 48 other armored combat vehicles, 14 pickups with heavy machine guns and more than 1,700 Ukrainian servicemen.
Vladimir Karnozov
