Russia’s Defence Ministry plans to deploy a further 300,000 servicemen to Ukraine after the completion of a gigantic military training programme, a Russian defence official wrote in an article for Krasnaya Zvezda, the ministry’s official newspaper, which was published on Monday.
Ivan Buvaltsev, the head of the Combat Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, said that 15 companies of military instructors and specialists had been set up to train the new recruits, with a focus on assault units, which have “become particularly relevant” amid “the consistent offensive advance” of Russian troops in Ukraine.
In 2025, Russia will continue to train new recruits at more than 2,300 sites across the country and during drills abroad that will be held in “as close to combat conditions as possible”, namely the Russia-Belarus Zapad-2025 military exercises scheduled for September next year, Buvaltsev said.
Since the mass draft effort in September 2022 that saw up to 300,000 servicemen conscripted into the Russian army, Russia has relied on professional soldiers and volunteers to boost its troop numbers in Ukraine, with many regions offering very generous one-time payouts to those who decided to enlist.
For instance, Russia’s western Belgorod region is offering a payout of 3 million rubles (€26,800) to those who enlist before the end of the year, while in October the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district in the Urals offered a 2.75-million-ruble (€24,500) payout to each new recruit.
Russia’s annual autumn conscription campaign is underway until 31 December, with the Defence Ministry planning to enlist some 133,000 conscripts required to perform a year of military service.
While the Kremlin has repeatedly assured Russians that inexperienced soldiers would not take part in combat operations in Ukraine, there have been numerous reports of conscripts being deployed in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region to tackle the Ukrainian army’s ongoing military incursion there.