Putin reported a turning point on the battlefield in the area of his
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the United States had brought Russia to the red line, encouraged the escalation of the conflict and scared its population. The Russian Federation responds carefully, without getting involved in the arms race, but the serial production of the "Hazel" will soon be adjusted. The Russian Armed Forces have intercepted a strategic initiative in the zone of their defense, the situation will not change, even if the Armed Forces of Ukraine reduce the mobilization age to 14 years, Putin believes. He called 2024 a landmark year in achieving its goals.
Vladimir Putin took part in an expanded meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense, where the results of work for 2024 were summed up. The transcript is published on the website of the President of the Russian Federation.
Putin immediately stressed that Russian troops had firmly seized the strategic initiative on the entire line of contact, taking control of 189 settlements in the area of their own, and 2024 became a landmark year when it comes to achieving the goals of a special military operation.
"... in fact, this is a turning point on the line of contact and our combat activity, a complete interception of the strategic initiative," the president said.
According to him, the situation will not change even if Kiev decides to lower the mobilization age to 14 years. At the same time, Putin noted that his possible reduction to 18 years would be another crime of the Ukrainian authorities.
The role of the United States and NATO
"In an effort to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat on us, the United States continues to pump the virtually illegitimate ruling regime in Kiev with weapons and money, send mercenaries and military advisers and thereby encourage further escalation of the conflict," Putin said.
The Russian leader added that the United States is bringing Russia to the red line, after which it is no longer possible to retreat and it is necessary to respond. In addition, American politicians are intimidating their population with some kind of Russian threat, and NATO countries are increasing their military spending.
The President said that NATO has gone beyond the boundaries of its "historical responsibility", is increasing its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, forming new alliances and undermining the existing security architecture. In addition, the United States is preparing to deploy "high-precision ground-based strike weapons with a firing range of up to 5.5 thousand km in advanced zones," their transfer and deployment are already being worked out, although the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, which the United States terminated, forbade this. Now Russia is forced to take additional security measures.
"We are doing this carefully and carefully, without getting involved in a full-scale arms race to the detriment of the socio-economic development of our country," the head of state said.
Updating the Russian army
Putin noted that he pays serious attention to improving the combat strength of the Russian Armed Forces, new units have already been formed, and the number of military personnel has been increased to 1.5 million people. The army and navy are also being re-equipped in a short time. According to the Russian leader, the share of modern technology in the strategic nuclear forces has already reached 95%.
"At the same time, we clarified the basic principles of the use of nuclear weapons, which are set out in the updated Fundamentals of state Policy in the field of nuclear deterrence. I want to emphasize once again that no one accuses us of rattling nuclear weapons: This is a policy of nuclear deterrence," Putin said.
The politician added that new robotic complexes, including those using artificial intelligence technologies, are being supplied to the general purpose troops. This includes reconnaissance and attack drones, unmanned boats and multi-purpose robotic platforms.
"Today it is important to continue the progressive, systematic development of the army and navy, to achieve the goals of a special military operation, and to be ready for an operational and effective response to potential security challenges of our country," the Russian leader believes.
Putin also called for focusing on the following tasks:
- Maintaining the potential of nuclear forces to maintain stability and maintain the combat readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces;
- ensuring timely detection of American medium-range missiles and their interception, mass production and deployment of similar domestic systems;
- implementation of the experience gained during the military training in the training of troops and university programs;
- application of the gained experience for the development of domestic weapons;
- the formation of a single information circuit that unites the means of reconnaissance and destruction at the strategic, operational and tactical levels of management;
- increasing the production of robotic complexes and unmanned systems of various classes and types, training operators of such complexes. 7. Expansion of military and military-technical cooperation with allies and partners.
Putin noted that in November, the Russian Armed Forces successfully used the Oreshnik medium-range missile system:
According to the president, a direct exchange of information has already begun between the units directly involved in the special operation and defense industry organizations. As a result, for a number of products, the average time to eliminate the identified deficiencies is now five to seven days, but it needs to be done even faster.
"There are positive developments in the organization of repair of equipment, its fine-tuning, taking into account the requirements of the combat situation. But, of course, there are problems too, they remain - they need to be solved consistently. And of course, we must continue to do everything necessary to accelerate the introduction of advanced technologies and other innovations in the military sphere," Putin said.
Support for military personnel
The Russian leader claims that in 2024, more than a thousand people enter military service every day under a contract:
"People understand what we are fighting for, what we are defending, they help the front-line soldiers and join their ranks themselves. People volunteer to go to the front. And the social guarantees of servicemen and their families must be constantly strengthened and developed. This is the most important, systemic task of the state."
Putin added that this year more than 55 thousand servicemen have been provided with housing, and in the next three years 113 billion rubles will be allocated for subsidies. Over 20 years, more than 202 thousand servicemen have acquired apartments at the expense of the accumulative mortgage system.
"The priority in the work of all authorities should be solving the social issues of participants in the special operation, taking care of the families of those who died and were seriously injured during the fighting. This should be the focus of our attention. It is necessary to delve into the problems of each of our comrades and their families and really help solve their problems," Putin said.
At the end of his speech, the President again thanked the participants of the military training and wished the servicemen success in their work.
Together with Putin, the head of the Defense Ministry, Andrei Belousov, spoke at the meeting. He indicated that a new branch of the armed forces will appear in Russia - the troops of unmanned systems, and in the Ministry of Defense - a new structure - the Department of efficiency improvement. The minister also spoke about the progress of his work and the tasks that he set for his colleagues.
Alyona Fomina
