(Reuters) – Russia’s recent military reforms reply to possible NATO expansion and the usage of Kyiv by the “collective West” to wage a hybrid war against Russia, the newly appointed general in command of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine said.
Valery Gerasimov, in his first public comments since his Jan. 11 appointment to the role, admitted also to problems with the mobilisation of troops, after public criticism forced President Vladimir Putin to reprimand the military.
The military reforms, announced mid-January, have been approved by Putin and might be adjusted to answer threats to Russia’s security, Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late Monday.
“Today, such threats include the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden, in addition to the usage of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country,” said Gerasimov, who can be the chief of Russia’s military general staff.
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Finland and Sweden applied last 12 months to affix the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Under Moscow’s recent military plan, a military corps shall be added to Karelia in Russia’s north, which borders with Finland.
The reforms also call for 2 additional military districts, Moscow and Leningrad, which existed before they were merged in 2010 to be a part of the Western Military District.
In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorized rifle divisions as a part of combined arms formations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, parts of which Moscow claims it annexed in September.
“The important goal of this work is to make sure guaranteed protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country,” Gerasimov said.
‘ACTING AGAINST THE ENTIRE COLLECTIVE WEST’
Gerasimov added that modern Russia has never seen such “intensity of military hostilities”, forcing it to perform offensive operations to stabilise the situation.
“Our country and its armed forces are today acting against your entire collective West,” Gerasimov said.
Within the 11 months since invading Ukraine, Russia has been shifting its rhetoric on the war from an operation to “denazify” and “demilitarise” its neighbour to increasingly casting it as defence from an aggressive West.
Kyiv and its Western allies call it a an unprovoked act of aggression, and the West has been sending increasingly heavy weaponry to Ukraine to assist it resist Russian forces.
Gerasimov and the leadership of the defence ministry have faced sharp criticism for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow’s failure to secure victory in a campaign the Kremlin had expected to take just a short while.
The country’s mobilisation of some 300,000 additional personnel in the autumn proceeded chaotically.
“The system of mobilization training in our country was not fully adapted to the brand new modern economic relations,” Gerasimov said. “So I needed to fix the whole lot on the go.”
(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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