In December 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said it was necessary to bring the number of the Russian armed forces to 1.5 million military personnel, including 695,000 contract soldiers.
"In 2023, it is necessary to timely carry out the organizational and staffing support of the formation of the combined-arms and air armies, an army corps, the Azov naval district, five divisions and 26 brigades, the creation of the Moscow and Leningrad military districts," Burdinsky said in an article published in the June issue of the Russian Defense Ministry's magazine.
He added that large-scale tasks to build up the composition of the armed forces, increase their strength in 2023, and implement organizational measures in the short term oblige the ministry to organize the staffing, its deployment, comprehensive support, synchronization of activities with the timing of the delivery of major weapons, military and special equipment.
Burdinsky said a partial mobilization, held in Russia in the fall of 2022, allowed the Russian armed forces to form over 280 units and subunits and conscript over 300,000 people.