Russia’s defence chief claims Russian army ‘receives regiment’ of new contract soldiers every day

The ministry’s recent order mandates people to sign contracts with the agency

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu told a Russian Security Council meeting that 1,336 people on average join the Russian army as contract soldiers per day, the Kremlin’s website reports.

Shoigu claims that the Russian army “receives a new regiment” every day.

At the same time, the defence agency does not see the need in drafting new volunteers for the Ukraine war according to the minister. He notes that 114,000 people have signed contracts with the Defence Ministry as of today.

The Russian ministry recently issued a new order to make signing contracts with the agency mandatory. According to the instruction, all “volunteer formations” have to enter into a legally-binding relationship with the ministry by 1 July. Latest reports suggest that more than 20 “volunteer units” have signed the contract with the ministry, including Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat formation.

Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, meanwhile, reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian military destroyed 246 Ukrainian tanks, including 13 machines supplied by the West, between 4 and 21 June.

Novaya-Europe spoke to military experts who slammed these reports as “absurdly overblown”. “Ukraine is yet to even activate these forces at the current stage of the offensive. These losses could only happen in a colossal-scale bloodbath. This huge amount of [destroyed] military equipment would be captured on video footage,” Israeli analyst David Sharp said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenary Wagner Group, slammed the order immediately after it was published and refused to sign it.

Later, Putin met with Russian military bloggers on 13 June where he said that the status of private military companies and volunteer units should align with “common sense, established practices, and the law”. The president explained that this is why they have to sign contracts with the Defence Ministry.

However, Prigozhin once again defied the order the next day, saying that he and his mercenaries would not sign any contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry.