UK intelligence: Russia significantly overstates army size

Moscow is recruiting residents of poor and rural regions of Russia into its army for the war against Ukraine.

On 11 January 2023, Russian Deputy Chair of the Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, stated that 500,000 people had joined the Russian armed forces in 2023. It is highly likely that this figure has been substantially inflated, Caliber.Az citing, the UK Defence Intelligence update dated 15 January.

“In its efforts to meet recruitment targets, the Russian military has since April 2023 allowed school-leavers to sign contracts with the Russian army. Recent data published by Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service suggests that at least five Russians born in 2005 have died in the conflict.

It is highly likely that Russian military recruitment to sustain the war has disproportionately drawn from impoverished and rural regional communities of Russia,” it adds.