The establishment of an army corps in a territory that borders Finland is one of the significant adjustments to Russia’s military that were announced on Tuesday.
Military Minister
Sergei Shoigu, the military minister for Russia, announced in a statement that Moscow will “create an army corps in the Republic of Karelia,” which is located near to its Nordic neighbor with whom it shares an 830-mile border. Additionally, Finland has two regions: North Karelia and South Karelia, which border the same-named Russian republic.
In May 2022, Moscow vowed to take “retaliatory actions” in response to Finland’s announcement that it will join NATO, citing the rising perception of Russia as a danger following its invasion of Ukraine.
According to Petri Mäkelä, a Finnish military and security analyst, Shoigu’s remark has not yet been discussed in Finland and there are “few Russian troops than ever” in the border region at the moment.
Since Finland proclaimed its intention to join NATO, he claimed, Moscow has not raised its overt hostility against Helsinki, and Finland has recently enhanced preparedness extremely well.
However, a lot will be revealed by the next wave of mobilization’s deployment, according to Mäkelä. Between me and St. Petersburg, there are no combat-effective soldiers at the present.
The Finnish military ministry has been approached by Newsweek for comment.
Long-standing Hostility
Helsinki and Moscow’s long-standing hostility has returned following Finland’s statement that it intends to join NATO. During the Winter War in 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Following a peace treaty in 1940, the countries clashed again in the Continuation War that began in 1941 and lasted until 1944.
Two new military districts, Moscow and Leningrad, as well as “three motorized rifle divisions in the ground forces and two air assault divisions in the airborne forces” were also revealed by Shoigu.
A proposal made public during a meeting of military high command on December 21 led to Vladimir Putin’s decision to expand the armed forces to 1.5 million soldiers, he added.
According to Russian news agency Tass, there were around one million military troops in Russia’s armed services at the beginning of 2022, and there were 1.15 million at the same time in 2023.
All of his deputies, the chiefs of each branch of the armed forces, and commanders would need to “make proper competent judgments” in order for the reforms to take effect over the course of the next three years, according to Shoigu.
Other Reports, Russia
In a recent video, mobilized Russian troops accuse their commander of sending them confusing signals and Russian President Vladimir Putin of putting them in danger.
On camera for just over a minute, a squad of Russian troops from the Yaroslavl area recorded a message that was targeted directly to Putin. The video went viral online on Wednesday. They now accuse them of desertion despite having stated that their battlefield commander urged them to turn back from a mission.
The soldiers went on to explain that they were intended to be in “territorial defense” when they were first in the enlistment office after being called up in the Yaroslavl region.
