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Vladimir Putin addressing senior Defense Ministry officials
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Sergei Fadeichev / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu have announced that the country's armed forces will be better equipped.
There are no financial limits from the government for this, says Putin in a speech to senior representatives of the Defense Ministry in Moscow.
Defense Minister Shoigu promised to increase the armed forces at the joint, televised appearance.
He proposes raising the number of soldiers to 1.5 million.
That would be 350,000 more soldiers than before.
The Kremlin chief agreed to the proposals.
Above all, the regular soldiers should be refilled significantly.
Their number is expected to rise to 695,000.
At the same time, the age period during which young men can be drafted as conscripts will be extended.
Shoigu proposed a maximum of 30 years.
Up to now, it has mainly been young men who have been called up after the age of 18 in Russia.
Zircon missiles for the frigate »Admiral Gorshkov«
Putin also announced that Russia would continue to expand its military potential.
This also applies to the combat readiness of the nuclear forces.
"The armed forces and the combat capabilities of our armed forces are constantly increasing every day," he said.
He also announced that the Russian Navy's frigate »Admiral Gorshkov« would be equipped with the new hypersonic missile Zirkon at the beginning of January.
The rocket is unparalleled anywhere in the world.
Zircon belongs to a new group of weapons that Moscow has been developing in recent years.
Shoigu, in turn, announced that Russia would set up naval bases in the occupied southern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk.
These should support the Russian fleet with emergency rescue and repair services.
From the top of the army, Putin demanded an improvement in military performance.
The army must learn from the problems in Ukraine and eliminate them.
"The country and the government are providing everything the army asks for." At the same time, Putin pointed to unspecified problems and demanded that constructive criticism should be heeded.
"I call on the Ministry of Defense to also consider the criticism and to react in a timely and correct manner," Putin said.
Bloggers sympathetic to the Russian government have expressed dismay at the performance of the Russian generals in the past.
The background to the performance is that Russia's war against Ukraine - which may not be called that in Russia - is anything but going as planned by Moscow.
The leadership assumed that it would be able to overrun the neighboring country within a very short time.
The war has now lasted ten months, and Russia has lost many of the areas and cities it first conquered.
In many cases, the morale and equipment of the Russian units are catastrophic.
Sol/dpa/AFP/Reuters
