Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on the country’s defense industry bosses to step up efforts to ensure that the Russian army quickly receives all the weapons, equipment and military equipment it needs to fight in Ukraine.
Putin, who has described Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of a historic effort to counter what he believes is excessive Western influence, made the remarks on Friday during a visit to Tula, a weapons manufacturing center.
“The main main task of our military-industrial complex is to provide our units and front forces with everything they need as quickly as possible: weapons, equipment, ammunition and equipment in the required quantities and of the right quality,” Putin said.
“It is also important to perfect and significantly improve the technical characteristics of weapons and equipment for our fighters based on accumulated combat experience.”
Putin said this week that the Russian army must learn from the problems it has suffered in Ukraine and promised to provide everything necessary to wage a war that is nearing the end of its tenth month.
Since tens of thousands of Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24 as part of what Putin called a “special military operation,” Moscow has ceded around half of the territory it had originally conquered.
“No funding restrictions”
Putin acknowledged that a mobilization campaign in September to increase around 300,000 troops did not go according to plan and ordered that deficiencies, which sometimes included a lack of basic equipment and training, be addressed urgently.
He stated this week that the state would ensure that the army’s needs are met without “funding restrictions,” but said there was no need to “militarize” the economy.
On Friday, he told defense industry bosses that he wanted to hear their suggestions for solving unspecified problems and called for defense industry specialists to work directly with frontline forces to regularly improve weapons and equipment.
Almost 10 months after its invasion, Russia occupies a huge swathe of eastern and southern Ukraine along a roughly 1,100 km (685 mile) front, but has suffered a series of defeats that have changed the momentum of the war in favor of its smaller adversary.
Russia last publicly announced its losses on September 21 and said 5,937 soldiers had been killed.
This figure is well below most international estimates. The top general of the United States estimated on November 9 that more than 100,000 soldiers were killed or wounded on each side.