Russia recruited 500,000 recruits in 2023 for the war in Ukraine

Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev cited recruitment statistics for the Russian army.

Last 2023, more than half a million recruits were recruited into the Russian army to participate in the war in Ukraine, that is, more than 40 thousand people every month, according to him.

Now there is no official mobilization in Russia; contract soldiers are involved in the war in Ukraine (often these are conscript soldiers who entered into contracts while serving in the army), as well as recruited prisoners, writes Interfax.

“The tasks set by the president for replenishing the Armed Forces were completed in full and within the time frames that were determined,” Medvedev said at a meeting on the issues of replenishing the Armed Forces with contract soldiers. A video clip of Medvedev’s statements was posted on his VKontakte page.

However, experts cast doubt on the figures of 500 thousand per year called by Moscow. In their opinion, the number may be overestimated by 200-250 thousand people. According to estimates from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, the Russian Federation recruits 20 thousand people per month for the war in Ukraine, or 240 thousand annually. But this is also a fairly large number.

In October, Medvedev reported that since the beginning of 2023, 357 thousand people have signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. We were talking about those who entered into a contract and those who came to serve as volunteers to participate in the war in Ukraine. In September the figure was 300 thousand. That is, it turns out that in a month Russia recruited 60 thousand people into the army.

Meanwhile, the BBC reportsthat in 2023 Russia lost one and a half times more military personnel than in the first year of the invasion of Ukraine. The publication came to this conclusion based on an analysis of the list of names of the dead, which is maintained jointly with Mediazona (recognized as a “foreign agent” in Russia) and a team of volunteers based on open sources.

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