At the end of the week, President Putin ordered the Russian army to increase the number of personnel by 137 thousand soldiers, up to 1.15 million soldiers in the Russian army.
Putin’s presidential decree will take effect on January 1. It is not clear if the intention is to recruit volunteers or a kind of mandatory recruitment in the contract. Previously, Moscow announced that only volunteer soldiers who signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense would participate in the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Russian media reports that the Kremlin’s goal is to recruit volunteers in large numbers, and in addition, an amnesty was offered to the prisoners in exchange for military service in Ukraine.
Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that his country’s fighter jets had undergone an upgrade that gave them the ability to carry nuclear weapons, and that this was done in coordination with Russia, a close ally of Belarus.
AP reports that according to Lukashenko, the decision to upgrade his fighter jets was made at his meeting with Putin in June, when Putin suggested that Belarus’ fighter jets be trained to carry nuclear weapons. The Kremlin did not respond to Lukashenko’s statement, which warned the US and its allies against “acts of provocation” against his country.
A few months ago, Lukashenko said that Russia’s nuclear weapons could be stored in his country if the US and NATO did so in Poland and Lithuania, which border Belarus.