Remarks by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation at the Expanded Meeting of the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense, December 21, 2022
Comrade Commander-in-Chief!
I will begin my report with a special military operation.
Today in Ukraine, Russian servicemen are being countered by the combined forces of the West.
The U.S. and its allies are pumping the Kiev regime with weapons, training soldiers, providing intelligence, sending advisers and mercenaries, and waging an information and sanctions war against us.
The Ukrainian leadership is resorting to prohibited methods of confrontation, including terrorist attacks and contract murders, and the firing of heavy weapons at civilians. Western countries are trying not to notice all of this, as well as elements of nuclear blackmail, such as provocations with regard to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and scenarios for the preparation of a so-called dirty nuclear bomb.
It is clear that the current situation is, first of all, beneficial for the USA, which is trying to use it to preserve its global dominance and to weaken other countries, including its allies in Europe.
Of particular concern is the build-up of NATO’s forward presence near the borders of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, as well as the West’s desire to drag out military action in Ukraine in order to weaken our country as much as possible.
After the revelations of Mrs. Merkel, Poroshenko and other politicians about the true goals of the Minsk agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine. The reason was the Western-financed coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, which brought anti-Russian forces to power and divided the brotherly peoples. This provoked an armed confrontation in Donbass.
We are taking action to save the population from genocide and terror. Russia is always open to constructive peace negotiations.
Russian troops continue to destroy military targets, launch massive high-precision strikes on the military management system, military-industrial complex enterprises and related facilities, including energy facilities. The chain of supply of foreign weapons is being destroyed and Ukraine’s military potential is being crushed.
At the same time, exhaustive measures are being taken to eliminate civilian casualties.
As a result, the Ukrainian armed forces have suffered significant losses. A significant part of the weapons and equipment available at the beginning of the operation has been destroyed.
To make up for the losses, the United States and NATO countries have multiplied their military assistance to the regime in Kyiv. Twenty-seven countries have already spent $97 billion on arms supplies to Ukraine, much more than what the Americans abandoned in Afghanistan. Some of it is in the hands of terrorists and is spreading around the world. There is no telling in whose hands tomorrow the weapons from Ukraine will end up.
It should be noted that NATO staff officers, artillerymen and other specialists are in the combat zone.
More than 500 US and NATO satellites operate in the interests of the AFU, of which more than 70 are military, the rest are dual-purpose.
The U.S. and its allies spend considerable resources on information and psychological influence on Russia and our allies. We have fully understood what the supposedly “free Western press” is all about. Thousands of fakes about the events in Ukraine are published daily on command from Washington, according to the same templates. Hundreds of television agencies, tens of thousands of print media outlets, and media resources on social networks and messengers are working for this.
The total silence of the Western media about the war crimes of the Ukrainian military is the height of cynicism. At the same time, the criminal regime in Kyiv and neo-Nazis are being glorified. The terrorist methods of the AFU are presented as legitimate self-defense or presented as the actions of Russian units. Ukrainian nationalists have taken on the role of barrier troops. Every day we receive data on the shooting of AFU servicemen evading combat missions.
In order to stabilize the situation, protect new territories and conduct further offensive operations, an increase in the combat and numerical strength of our troop groups was required.
Partial mobilization was undertaken to that end. It became a criterion of maturity of the Russian society and a serious test for the country and the Armed Forces.
Mobilization plans had not been put into effect since the Great Patriotic War. The very system of mobilization training was not fully adapted to the new economic relations.
That is why with the beginning of partial mobilization we encountered difficulties in notification and conscription of citizens who were in the reserve.
All the shortcomings had to be corrected on the fly. The organizational and staff structures of the military administrative bodies, formations and units were changed as soon as possible.
Urgent measures were taken to improve all kinds of provision.
The measures of partial mobilisation were implemented on time and in full. Three hundred thousand citizens, already in reserve, were called up for military service.
The consolidated work of the federal and regional state authorities played an important role in this.
I wish to stress in particular the active citizenship of Russians. Without waiting for subpoenas, more than 20,000 people enlisted in the troops as volunteers.
To support the economy of the country more than 830,000 citizens working at enterprises of the military-industrial complex and in a number of other socially important spheres providing vital functions of the state were exempted from military conscription.
Thanks to the decisions made by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the mobilized citizens received the same benefits and guarantees as those under contract.
With the mobilized servicemen training for combat actions was organized – from training of individual skills to combat teaming in the composition of subunits.
A great burden fell on the politico-military bodies. This confirmed the correctness of the decision made in 2018 to create them. At the same time, much remains to be done to ensure that they are fully prepared to carry out combat tasks.
Overall, the partial mobilization increased the combat capabilities of the troops and intensified combat operations.
Troops liberated five times the territory that the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics had occupied before February 24.
At the end of May, Russian troops completely cleared Mariupol, a major industrial center, from the Nazis. The city had been turned by the Kiev regime into a powerful fortification, the core of which was the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant.
As a result of the successful actions of units of the Russian Armed Forces and the Donetsk People’s Militia, more than four thousand militants were destroyed, two and a half thousand (2,439) Azov nationalists and AFU soldiers laid down their arms and surrendered.
Peaceful life has been restored.
Today, the ports in Berdyansk and Mariupol are fully operational. We plan to deploy supply vessel basing points, emergency rescue services and Navy ship repair units in them.
The Sea of Azov has once again become an inland sea of Russia, as it has been for three hundred years of our country’s history.
Land communication with the Crimea by rail and road has been resumed.
Rail traffic with Donbass is being restored.
Cargoes have been delivered to Mariupol, Berdyansk and other liberated settlements for several months.
The establishment of control over the North Crimean Canal made it possible to restore the water supply to the Crimean peninsula, which had been absent for eight years due to the water and energy blockade.
Russian servicemen in the course of the special military operation showed courage, steadfastness and self-sacrifice.
More than 100 thousand people were awarded state decorations, 120 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
During the special operation more than 250,000 regular servicemen received combat experience.
Today the Russian armed forces are actively participating in the establishment of peaceful life on the liberated territories. Over 27,000 hectares of territory have been demined.
In Mariupol, military builders have built 12 residential buildings. Six more houses, a kindergarten and a school continue to be built.
In Luhansk and Mariupol two multifunctional medical centers with the most modern equipment with a capacity of 260 beds have been built in record time.
Much work is being done to restore the water supply in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Water pipelines with a total length of more than 200 km have been built. They provided water to more than one million 500 thousand people. A 194-kilometer-long water conduit from the Don River is under construction, which will guarantee the water supply to Donetsk.
On the whole, the special military operation demonstrated the high professionalism of the commanders and staff at all levels of command, as well as the readiness of military personnel to carry out the most difficult combat tasks.
Our armaments and military equipment have confirmed their exceptional reliability and effectiveness.
A special military operation provides a unique opportunity to analyze modern methods of conducting inter-service operations and the forces and equipment used in these operations for consideration in the plans for improving the Armed Forces.
The leadership of the country and the Armed Forces have received unprecedented support from Russian citizens. This clearly shows the unity of the army and society.
This year, the Defense Ministry has addressed and continues to address a number of other critical tasks.
At the beginning of the year, together with the CSTO countries, they conducted an operation to stabilize the situation in Kazakhstan. We prevented a color revolution in this country.
Russian troops remain the main guarantor of peacekeeping in Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh. During the year we conducted humanitarian actions, demining, provided medical assistance to the population.
Our nuclear triad is maintained at a level that allows us to guarantee strategic deterrence.
The high combat readiness of the strategic nuclear forces is ensured by the unprecedented level of modernity, which has been raised to 91.3%.
The Strategic Missile Forces have completed the rearmament of two missile regiments to the Yars mobile ground-based missile system.
Another missile regiment equipped with the Avangard missile system with a hypersonic gliding wing unit was put on combat duty.
Successful launches of the new Sarmat heavy class missile system during state tests allowed us to begin work on its deployment.
Aviation strategic nuclear forces were augmented with the strategic missile-carrying Tu-160m and Tu-95ms aircraft.
This year 73 air patrols were conducted, two of them together with the People’s Liberation Army of China.
Nuclear-powered missile submarine cruisers perform routine combat duty in designated areas of the world’s oceans.
The Navy received another nuclear-powered submarine of the Borey-A project, the Generalissimo Suvorov, armed with Bulava ballistic missiles.
The combat capabilities of the branches and branches of the Armed Forces continued to improve.
In the Air and Space Forces the Unified Space System was further developed. The sixth spacecraft “Dome” was launched, which makes it possible to control continuously the missile-hazardous areas in the Northern hemisphere.
The training aviation is systematically developing. Flight time of the cadets was increased by more than a third due to introduction of new models of training planes.
This year marked the first graduation of female military pilots. More than half of female graduates graduated with honors.
The Navy received a state-of-the-art submarine, six surface ships, three combat boats, 11 supply ships and boats, and two coastal missile systems.
Serial deliveries of the Zirkon sea-based hypersonic missile have begun. The frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov with hypersonic missiles on board is in its final stage of preparation for combat service in an unplanned area of the world ocean.
The most important feature of the fulfillment of the state defense order 2022 was the provision of weapons and equipment for the groups of troops solving tasks in a special military operation. To increase their combat capabilities, the deliveries of the most popular models have been postponed from 2024-2025 to 2023.
A ten-month timetable has been drawn up to optimize the supply of weapons. Its implementation is monitored by a joint task force of the Ministry of Defense, the Military-Industrial Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and defense industry organizations.
The amount of financial resources provided for 2022, taking into account the additional supply of weapons and equipment, allowed to increase the number of basic models sent to the troops by 30%, the amount of ammunition for rocket and artillery armament and aircraft means of destruction from 69 to 109%.
At the same time, the level of fulfillment of tasks of the State Defense Order with respect to the main samples amounted to 91%.
In 2022 all planned events of operational and combat training were fulfilled, including 14 international exercises of different levels.
At the beginning of the year, a series of large-scale naval exercises were conducted, during which the tasks of countering military threats to Russia from sea and oceanic directions were practiced.
The Vostok-2022 strategic command post exercise was the final event of the combat service.
More than 51,000 servicemen took part in it, including those from the armed forces of 14 foreign countries. A particular feature of the exercise was the creation of an international grouping of troops to carry out joint tasks.
The exercise demonstrated the ability of the created inter-service groupings to effectively carry out tasks to ensure regional security.
During the special exercise, the strategic nuclear forces successfully practiced the task of delivering a massive nuclear strike in response to the enemy’s use of weapons of mass destruction.
An Arctic expedition was conducted in the eastern sector of the Arctic and on the Chukotka peninsula. A set of training and combat activities, research and experiments were carried out. All weapon models have proved their technical characteristics in the Arctic conditions.
Despite attempts by the collective West to isolate Russia, we continue to expand the geography of international military and military-technical cooperation.
The Defense Ministry is developing relations with the armed forces of 109 states in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
This year we have held 350 significant international events.
The Army International Games were one of the main events of joint training with the armies of foreign countries. More than five thousand three hundred soldiers from 34 countries participated in the games. The Games, held in 12 countries, were visited by more than three million people.
Over the eight years of the Games 80 training ranges were modernized and their training and material resources were actively used for combat training of units.
The annual forum “ARMIA” contributed to strengthening of international military and technical cooperation. Delegations from 85 foreign countries participated in it, and the number of visitors totaled almost two million people.
The forum has concluded 36 state contracts with the enterprises of the defense industry for a total sum of more than 525 billion rubles.
The Forum is an effective and dynamically developing project, which by its indicators greatly exceeds similar leading world exhibition venues.
The Tenth Moscow International Security Conference was held in August with the participation of over 700 delegates from 70 countries. This is the largest military-political event in the world in terms of the number of participants.
This year the 1st International Anti-Fascist Congress was held. State and public figures, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, nine foreign delegations and military attachés from 26 countries took part in it. The forum participants unequivocally condemned any manifestations of fascism, neo-Nazism and chauvinism in the modern world.
The congress is to be held annually.
Our high military school is one of the best in the world. There are students and cadets from 55 countries in the higher education institutions of the Defense Ministry, which is more than in the Soviet times.
Starting from September 1, 2023 the network of educational institutions of Armed Forces will be expanded by Donetsk Higher Military Combined Arms Command School.
The development of the network of pre-university educational organizations of the Ministry of Defense continues.
By September 1 next year, we will open a new Suvorov Military School in Irkutsk.
Together with the authorities, work has been organized to create the Federal Agency for Work with Veterans. This will make it possible to centralize and make more effective the system of social protection for military veterans.
Thank you, esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich, for supporting this initiative.
Housing conditions have been resolved for 49,000 military families, and 100,000 people receive compensation for their rent.
We pay great attention to the development of military medicine.
As a result of medical and preventive care, over the ten years the overall sickness rate in the Armed Forces has been reduced by a factor of 1.5.
The number of military medical organizations providing high-tech medical care has tripled and the range of services they provide has doubled. The number of patients who received this type of help amounted to over 28 thousand people.
Military medics proved to be particularly effective during a special military operation. First aid is provided within 10 minutes. The wounded are taken to medical units within 1 hour, and to military hospitals within the first 24 hours.
We achieved low mortality during evacuation phases of the wounded. The lethality rate in the hospital tier was less than half a percent.
It is the lowest figure in the history of military medicine.
According to your instructions, we have started the program of military healthcare modernisation for the period till 2027.
A new 150-bed modern military hospital was opened in Kazan. Nine new military hospitals are under construction in Ryazan, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Kaspiysk, Sevastopol, Mirny and Vladikavkaz.
The construction of a health and treatment center was completed at a unique balneological resort in Kamchatka.
The Ministry of Defense has organized a systematic fight against a new coronavirus infection. During the sixth wave an outbreak of the disease was not allowed.\.
As for the military construction complex.
All plans have been fulfilled and over three thousand buildings and facilities have been built.
The main attention was paid to the development of the infrastructure for the strategic nuclear forces. This year, 650 high-tech facilities have been built for them, including those for the Avangard, Yars and Sarmat missile systems.
The Northern Fleet commissioned onshore energy and social infrastructure facilities in Gadzhievo.
A 1,154-meter quay front was commissioned at the Caspian Flotilla’s basing point, and construction of another quay was completed.
As part of the development of the aviation basing system of the Armed Forces, infrastructure was renovated at 15 airfields to receive all modern aviation equipment.
Military camps were developed as planned. Construction of 625 buildings and structures of the park and barracks-housing zone was completed.
According to your instructions, the subdivisions of railway troops continue to reconstruct 339 kilometers of Ulak – Februaryisk section of Baikal-Amur Mainline.
About three million cubic meters of excavation work has already been done, which is more than half of the planned targets.
The Defense Ministry has implemented major patriotic and cultural projects.
Military parades were held in 28 cities. The main naval parade was traditionally held.
In accordance with your instructions in 90 days the memorial complex “Saur-Grave”, significant for the whole country, was restored. The Eternal Flame is once again burning on the mound.
Systematic work on military-patriotic education of young people is continued. At its core is the YUNARMIA movement, which has already covered all regions of Russia and united more than 1,251,000 children and teenagers.
In cooperation with the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, work continued to develop the Avangard network of training and methodological centers for military-patriotic education of young people. In 2022, 20 regional centers and 25 centers were opened in cities with populations over 100,000.
In total, 88 centers “Avangard” trained more than 150 thousand high school students.
We believe that creation of such centers must become the basis of basic military training and the system of military-patriotic education of youth in the country.
Comrade Commander-in-Chief! On the whole, all the tasks set for 2022 have been accomplished by the armed forces. Their combat capabilities have grown by more than 13 percent. We have achieved the set level of maintaining the country’s defense capabilities.
Measures to strengthen the security of the Russian Federation
Given NATO’s desire to build up its military capabilities near Russia’s borders and expand the Alliance to Finland and Sweden, steps need to be taken to create a corresponding group of forces in northwestern Russia.
Increase the conscription age from 18 to 21 and raise the upper age limit to 30 for recruitment into the Russian armed forces on a phased basis. Allow citizens, if they so desire, to enlist for military service under contract from the first day of joining the military
Create two interspecific strategic territorial units of the armed forces – the Moscow and Leningrad military districts.
Continue to improve the composition and structure of the branches of the Armed Forces, increasing the responsibility of the major commands for the preparation and use of the associations and formations.
Form three motorized rifle divisions, including those as part of combined arms formations in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as an army corps in Karelia.
Seven motorized rifle brigades in the Western, Central and Eastern Military Districts and the Northern Fleet were transformed into motorized rifle divisions.
Two additional airborne assault divisions should be formed in the Airborne Forces.
For each combined arms (tank) army contain a mixed aviation division and a brigade of army aviation, numbering 80-100 attack helicopters.
In addition, to form three additional aviation division directorates, eight bomber aviation regiments, one fighter aviation regiment, and six brigades of army aviation.
To create artillery reserves in strategic areas, form five artillery divisions of military districts, as well as high-capacity artillery brigades.
In the coastal forces of the Navy to form five marines divisions on the basis of existing marines brigades.
In order to guarantee the military security of the Russian Federation, the number of servicemen should be increased to 1.5 million, including those serving under contract to 695,000 servicemen.
The transition to outsourcing in 2008-2012 led to the virtual elimination of military repair bodies, which had a negative impact on the serviceability of weapons and equipment. Since 2012, measures have been taken to re-establish them. A special military operation demonstrated the need to further build up the repair and maintenance bodies in the troops.
Next year, three repair plants will be formed and repair units in the troop tier will be reinforced.
In the military commissariats to introduce the federal civil service with an increase in the number of military positions in them.
To complete the digital transformation of the military registration and enlistment offices.
Comrade Commander-in-Chief!
If you agree, the above approaches will be included in the Armed Forces development plans in due course.
Priority tasks for 2023
Continue with the special military operation until the tasks are fully accomplished.
Russian groups of troops and forces to ensure the preservation of peace and stability in Nagorno-Karabakh and Syria.
Fully implement a set of operational and combat training activities with a focus on the threats posed by NATO’s further eastward expansion.
Prepare and conduct “West-2023” maneuvers of troops (forces).
Put 22 launchers with Yars, Avangard, and Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert in the Strategic Missile Forces.
Accept into the Air Force strategic nuclear forces three Tu-160m strategic missile carriers.
To take the nuclear-powered submarine Emperor Alexander III of Borey-A project into the fleet, as well as four submarines and 12 surface ships.
Increase deliveries of high-precision hypersonic rocket systems “Kinzhal” and “Zirkon”. Continuing work on other promising models.
Increase the number of contract servicemen, taking into account the replacement of mobilized citizens in the groups of troops and manning the new formations, to 521,000 by the end of the year.Comrade Commander-in-Chief!
In accordance with your instructions, next year the policy of gradual development of the Armed Forces and increasing their combat capabilities will be continued.
We will discuss the results in detail during the closed session of the Collegium.
The report is finished.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 