Russia completed autumn draft and bolstered army by 130,000 personnel
The autumn draft campaign in Russia has concluded (photo: Getty Images)
On December 29, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation completed the autumn draft for the year 2023, which began on October 1. 130,000 individuals were conscripted for military service, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
It is noted that the conscription was carried out in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, dated September 29, regarding the conscription for military service.
The majority of conscripts were assigned to training units and military units. At the same time, those conscripts who completed the established terms of compulsory military service from the autumn draft of 2022 were released.
No conscripts will be sent to Ukraine
At the beginning of the autumn draft in 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that conscripts would not be sent to the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, or Kherson regions or be engaged in combat operations in Ukraine.
As noted by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), since the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, conscripted soldiers have not been directly involved in combat. However, Russian security forces increasingly rely on conscripts for functions related to guarding the state border between Russia and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the State Duma of Russia plans to consider a bill that would allow Russian conscripts to serve in the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
According to ISW's assessment, the Kremlin is unlikely to deploy conscripts for combat operations in Ukraine in the future, fearing that it could lead to dissatisfaction within the country.
The spring conscription cycle for the year 2024 in Russia is scheduled to take place from April 1 to July 15, 2024.
Production of new weapons
According to information from the Russian Ministry of Defense, in 2023, the military received 1500 tanks, 2200 combat armored vehicles, 1400 armored vehicles, 1400 rocket and artillery systems, and 22,000 drones.
At the same time, the report does not specify what portion of this equipment Russian forces took from storage and what percentage was newly manufactured.
"Russia has gradually been mobilizing its defense industrial base (DIB) to support the war effort in Ukraine but has not done so at a scale that would suggest that most of the reported transfers of military vehicles to Russian forces in 2023 represent newly produced vehicles," the ISW report stated.
The current situation on the front
According to data from the map of the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian defense forces have advanced to the south of Spirne, which is 27 kilometers northeast of Bakhmut.
As reported by investigators from VICE News, at least five senior officers of the Russian Armed Forces have been eliminated in the war in Ukraine over the past two weeks.
As of the morning of December 29, in the past 24 hours, our defenders have eliminated nearly 850 occupiers. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost 357,520 military personnel.
