Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that Russia will complete the creation of a “reserve army” by the end of June, commenting on this during a meeting of the Moscow Security Council chaired by Vladimir Putin, Meduza reports.

“By the end of June, a reserve army will be formed, and in the near future – an army corps [va fi modelat]; they will receive more than 3,700 pieces of equipment,” Shoigu said.

“Five regiments have already been formed by more than 60%, in this case we are talking about both military personnel and equipment,” he said, adding that “everything is going according to plan.”

Plans for the new army corps were announced by Russia’s defense ministry back in December, when President Vladimir Putin approved an increase in the armed forces by 350,000 additional soldiers, alongside sweeping military reform plans.

The Russian army corps mainly consists of a motorized rifle division (about 10,000 servicemen) and support elements (artillery, missiles, reconnaissance, etc.).

Whether the army corps will be created on the basis of a newly formed division (the creation of three new motorized rifle divisions was planned in December) or on the basis of an already existing one is not yet clear.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Russian army has formed only two new units – the 3rd Army Corps, consisting of about 15,000 “volunteers”, and the 72nd Motorized Infantry Brigade, which is part of it.

Shoigu says the Russian army is recruiting more volunteers than it needs

Shoigu also announced on Thursday that the Russian army has recruited about 114,000 contract soldiers and another 52,000 volunteers.

“On average, 1,336 people are enlisting under contract every day, we’re getting practically a regiment every day,” he said, reassuring that Russia did not need a new wave of mobilization like the one Putin indicated last September.

The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation also noted that Russia naturally has “combatants”, but at the moment “there is no great need for this”.

Shoigu did not reveal the composition of the reserve army, and the armies in the Russian armed forces are very heterogeneous.

For example, the 1st Tank Army of the Western Military District consists of three divisions (two tank divisions and one motorized rifle division), while the 35th Army of the Eastern Military District consists of only two motorized rifle brigades and one guard (a brigade is about three times smaller than the division).

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